Category: On This Day

Thursday (05-December-2024) — New Jersery

Eleven-Years Ago Today. Troll Family Holiday viewing the Northern Lights. Digital Art, New Jersey and Tromsø, Norway. (05-Dec-2013)

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)

I missed the comet for the past several nights due to early evening clouds and even some much-needed rain. The comet is getting fainter and the tail shorter. The magnitude is now 9.9. The first image is a composite of 31 images (5 min 10 sec) and the second one is a composite of 59 images (9 min 50 sec). In the second image there is some movement of the comet head. Also, the comet is moving into a region of the sky with part of the milky way in the background (many more faint stars).

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 31 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 310 sec).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 31 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 310 sec).

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 59 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 590 sec).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 59 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 590 sec).

Wednesday (04-December-2024) — New Jersey

Six-Years Ago Today. Northern Red Cardinal. (04-Dec-2018, New Jersey).

Sunspot Activity

The solar disk was observed with a Vespera Pro telescope (250 mm, f/5, 1400 microseconds) using a Solar filter. The sun is near the solar maximum period of the 11-year solar sunspot cycle. The image is cropped to 1204 x 1204 pixels with the apparent diameter of the sun a little less than 0.54°. Processing the image using Topaz AI (noise reduction or sharpening) or AutoStakkert4 (image stacking) did not improve the image.

Sun with sunspots. Image taken with a Vespera Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 1400 microseconds exposure) and Solar Filter.
Sun with sunspots. Image taken with a Vespera Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 1400 microseconds exposure) and Solar Filter.

Sunday (01-December-2024) — New Jersey

Nine-Years Ago Today. Red fox on the side of the road with a road-killed deer. (01-Dec-2015, New Jersey)

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)

The camera in the Stellina telescope stopped working. I’ll be contacting Vaonis support to try and figure out what is wrong. So tonight, I only have the Vespera-Pro telescope capturing images of the comet. The magnitude is now 9.6. The first image is a composite of 31 images (5 min 10 sec) and the second one is a composite of 247 images (41 min 20 sec). In the second image there is some movement of the comet head. Also, the comet is moving into a region of the sky with part of the milky way in the background (many more faint stars).

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 31 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 310 sec).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 31 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 310 sec).

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 247 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 2470 sec).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 247 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 2470 sec).