{"id":66107,"date":"2024-12-02T13:29:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T13:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/586033fe-a433-4253-aa33-ee124f065261"},"modified":"2024-12-02T13:39:36","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T13:39:36","slug":"your-last-chance-to-see-it-how-to-catch-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-in-december-before-it-fades-from-view","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/your-last-chance-to-see-it-how-to-catch-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-in-december-before-it-fades-from-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Your last chance to see it. How to catch Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in December before it fades from view"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Pete Lawrence\n <\/p>

Published: Monday, 02 December 2024 at 13:29 PM<\/p>

\n\n

After its emergence from the Sun\u2019s glare into the October sky, Comet C\/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan\u2013ATLAS<\/a> put on a decent show as a naked-eye comet, but its fade into binocular and small-telescope territory was fairly rapid.<\/p>

At the start of December, it\u2019s predicted to shine with an integrated magnitude of +9.0, fading to +10.5 by the end of the month.<\/p>

This still places it well within reach of small telescopes.<\/p>

Comet A3 is fading fast, but technically still visible in December 2024. Credit: Pete Lawrence <\/figcaption> <\/figure>

In December, comet A3 is visible in the evening sky near Altair<\/a> (Alpha (\u03b1) Aquilae) in Aquila<\/a>, the Eagle.<\/p>

Altair is a star of summer, but thanks to the long nights of December remains visible in the early evening following sunset and evening twilight.<\/p>

But you don\u2019t have a lot of time to catch it at its best, as the region of sky in which the comet is contained will sink rapidly towards the west-northwest horizon following the point when true darkness arrives.<\/p>

The comet traverses the centre of Aquila during December, the key navigational points being Altair with its two flanking stars, Alshain (Beta (\u03b2) Aquilae) and Tarazed (Gamma (\u03b3) Aquilae), together with the star at the centre of the constellation, Delta (\u03b4) Aquilae.<\/p>

Locate these and you shouldn\u2019t have too much trouble locating the comet.\u00a0<\/p>

If you’ve been observing or photographing Comet A3, share your memories and images with us by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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By Pete Lawrence Published: Monday, 02 December 2024 at 13:29 PM After its emergence from the Sun\u2019s glare into the October sky, Comet C\/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan\u2013ATLAS put on a decent show as a naked-eye comet, but its fade into binocular and small-telescope territory was fairly rapid. At the start of December, it\u2019s predicted to shine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":66108,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/12\/your-last-chance-to-see-it-how-to-catch-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-in-december-before-it-fades-from-view.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/12\/your-last-chance-to-see-it-how-to-catch-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-in-december-before-it-fades-from-view-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/12\/your-last-chance-to-see-it-how-to-catch-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-in-december-before-it-fades-from-view-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/12\/your-last-chance-to-see-it-how-to-catch-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-in-december-before-it-fades-from-view-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/12\/your-last-chance-to-see-it-how-to-catch-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-in-december-before-it-fades-from-view-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/12\/your-last-chance-to-see-it-how-to-catch-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-in-december-before-it-fades-from-view.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/12\/your-last-chance-to-see-it-how-to-catch-comet-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-in-december-before-it-fades-from-view.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Pete Lawrence Published: Monday, 02 December 2024 at 13:29 PM After its emergence from the Sun\u2019s glare into the October sky, Comet C\/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan\u2013ATLAS put on a decent show as a naked-eye comet, but its fade into binocular and small-telescope territory was fairly rapid. At the start of December, it\u2019s predicted to shine…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/66107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}