We lingered at the coast tonight to try to see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. After a beautiful sunset (with Venus, above), we eventually located the comet. We had great views with binoculars, and I tried to take a photo, but I'm afraid I don't have experience photographing comets! But for the record, here's a view of the comet from Bodega Head on 18 October 2024:
That's interesting. It looks like the comet was higher in the sky than we thought. Your sunset with Venus looks just like what we saw.
ReplyDeleteHi, John!
ReplyDeleteYes, in fact when I first looked for it, I couldn't find it. Then I checked the skylive map, which was very helpful:
https://theskylive.com/planetarium?obj=c2023a3
My understanding is that every night it's a little higher (if you're looking in the hour after sunset). When we saw it the last couple of nights, it was about twice the distance that Venus was above the horizon...and about 45 deg to the right of Venus. I had an easier time finding it with binoculars, but once you know where it is, you can see a bit of a glow. The tail is very long!
:) Jackie