April 8, 2024: Total solar eclipse. Most of North America will see at least a partial solar eclipse.
October 2024: Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), which is promising to be bright spectacular comet with apparent magnitude below 0 (lower is brighter). Closest approach to earth is on Oct 12.
Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS is currently swinging by the inner solar system and is at its brightest around magnitude 9, visible in the northern sky using telescopes.
This image was captured on July 9, few days after Perihelion on July 1, by Austria-based comet hunter and astrophotographer Dan Bartlett.
This is the surface of a comet! Dust is swirling around the surface of Comet 67/P -- captured in 2016 by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, processing by Jacint Roger Perez.
Still one of the most remarkable scenes in space exploration.
For my #introduction, I chose to toot my favourite photo starring #Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1). I took this photo on one Christmas day in Canberra, Australia. I was doing my PhD on solutions to global environmental problems. #AstroPhotography helped me keep calm. I have since moved back to #Finland where I research and teach #EcologicalEconomics. In #mastodon, I plan to share my thoughts and work related to solutions, science, and photography. Feel free to connect if these things interest you.
Did you guys also know that #comets aren't special and aren't traveling any faster than any other #asteroid or other object out there, and they're not hot or on fire?
They're actually ice #balls, and the #sun makes the ice evaporate and then the solar wind (particles from the sun) blows that "atmosphere" away from the sun, creating the tail.
The tail doesn't even have anything to do with the direction that the ice ball is moving! The tail blows away from the sun. That's it.
A comet is literally a solar windsock.
Why did they never teach us this in school? Why did they allow us to think that comets were special fireballs moving at the speed of light across the galaxy?
Anyway, tonight and tomorrow night is the #Orionid Meteor Shower, which apparently is made up of debris from #Halley's #Comet. That's what got me on this topic.
I can't tell you how excited I am to own this, recently bought from a friend. It's a #VieuxCognac bottle featuring a #comet badge. The #GreatCometOf1811 AKA #Comet C/1811 F1 was visible for ~260 days. 1811 was a great year for wine production & "Comet Wine" was sold for many years afterwards.
Here is another picture from tonight's road trip to photograph comet Pons-Brooks. Bit of a challenge actually. 1-hour drive, 2 telescopes to set up, and the bloody comet would just be 2 degrees high an hour after sunset. But there was nothing on TV so why not. #Comet#Astronomy#NewZealand
In the past weeks I see many videos on YT with titles indicating that the interstellar object Oumuamua has either recently accelerated again or "has returned" / "is headed back to us" and the claims are often associated with physicist Dr. Michi Kaku.
But, looking at every such video I find, there is no mention of anything like this having been observed.
Such an occurrence would be remarkable, and so I assume this is just another example of extreme click-bating that's certainly been on the rise recently.
I assume no one reading has heard such an actual claim. ?
On to #8 on #ianstop102023 Let's go back to the night of 11th February when the beautiful green Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was really close to the planet Mars in the sky. The contrast in colour was beautiful! #astronomy#NewZealand#comet#Mars
https://www.seti.org/keeping-eye-comet-a3-next-naked-eye-comet-candidate
In early 2023, a new comet took stargazers by surprise. Called Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinan-Atlas), this icy visitor was discovered by two separate observatories in South Africa and China. Comet A3 had scientists and amateurs alike wondering if it would be the next naked-eye comet to light our skies. As 2024 unfolds, we eagerly anticipate whether Comet A3 will deliver the breathtaking celestial display we have all been hoping for!
So yes, I know the satellite trails can be processed out of the comet image I shared earlier. Here's a fully processed version showing Comet Pons Brooks on the evening of 4th May. The comet was very low in the sky from New Zealand at the time the images from which this composite has been assembled. #comet#ponsbrooks#NewZealand