Yesterday the sky was overcast, so no comet images. The comet and tail keep getting smaller and fainter. The estimated magnitude of the comet was +8.2. I am only showing images from the Stellina telescope since the Vespera telescopes are fitted with filters for viewing emission nebulae.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec).
Full “Beaver” Moon
The full “supermoon” this month was extra bright because it was closer to earth. Once it was above the trees to my east, I used the Stellina telescope to record images for a time-lapse video. While reviewing the images I found several images with silhouettes of birds passing in front of the moon. At this time of the year, birds are migrating south, often at night. Even though it may have been a large bird, it must have been a long way away. The cropped image is about 4x magnification.
Silhouette of a bird flying in front of the “Beaver” full moon. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/2000 sec).Cropped Image. Silhouette of a bird flying in front of the “Beaver” full moon. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/2000 sec).
Birds and planes passing in front of the sun with sunspots
Today it was silhouettes of a turkey vulture, some other birds, and partial silhouettes of a jet and a small plane passing in front of the sun. I’ve also added the time-lapse video if you want to look for other objects passing in front of the sun. There are several sunspots (we are at or near the solar maximum) that are constant across the video. When viewing the individual images there are some with small dots (satellites?) and blurs (blowing autumn leaves).
Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a bird. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of two birds. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of an airplane. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)
The comet is still visible to the telescopes with an estimated magnitude of +6.8. The tail is fainter and shorter than yesterday. The Vespera II telescope was fitted with a CLS (city light suppression) filter causing the tint to the image. The length of the comet tail can be estimated based on the field of view for the telescope’s digital sensors. Stellina (1.0° x 0.7°), Vespera Classic (1.6° x 0.9°), Vespera Passengers (2.4° x 1.8°), Vespera II (2.5° x 1.4°), and Vespera Pro (1.6° x 1.6°). The jpg images were processed to increase the brightness (Capture One Pro) and reduce the noise (Topaz AI).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera Classic Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera Passengers Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera II Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec) using a CLS (city light suppression) filter.Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec).
The comet is still visible to the telescopes with an estimated magnitude of +6.5. The tail is fainter and shorter than two days ago. The Vespera II telescope was fitted with a CLS (city light suppression) filter causing the tint to the image. The length of the comet tail can be estimated based on the field of view for the telescope’s digital sensors. Stellina (1.0° x 0.7°), Vespera Classic (1.6° x 0.9°), Vespera Passengers (2.4° x 1.8°), Vespera II (2.5° x 1.4°), and Vespera Pro (1.6° x 1.6°). The jpg images were processed to increase the brightness (Capture One Pro) and reduce the noise (Topaz AI).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera Classic Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera Passengers Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera II Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec) using a CLS (city light suppression) filter.Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec).
Jets and birds passing in front of the sun with sunspots.
The sky started out clear and sunny with clouds coming in later in the day. The Stellina telescope was fitted with a solar filter and set to observe the sun and sunspots. While reviewing a time-lapse video of the 18500 images (7h 45m compressed down to 10m 15s) I noticed the silhouette of a couple of jets and a bird (Turkey Vulture). Let me know if you see anything else (other than clouds) passing in front of the sun. It was windy with leaves falling from the trees. Even though it is Halloween, I didn’t catch a silhouette of a witch on a broom flying past the sun. By evening, the sky clouded over, so no images of the comet or other night sky objects.
Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a bird. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.
Even though it didn’t rain Tuesday night, the sky was too overcast for any observations of the comet (or any other objects). Today it was clear and sunny most of the day with some high-level clouds appearing towards evening. During the day, the Stellina telescope was fitted with a solar filter to observe the sun and sunspots. The images were used to create a time-lapse video.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)
I wasn’t sure if it would clear up again in time for the telescopes to observe the comet. Whether doing single observations or automated observation plans, initialization of the Stellina and Vespera telescopes require clear enough sky to see some stars to run the automated initialization routine (sky alignment and focus).
My workflow for doing observations of the comet goes as follows. First, I use the Stellarium software package to look up the RA (right ascension) and Dec (declination) data for Comet C/2023 A3 for my location and time of the observation (19:00 to 20:30). The RA/dec data is used to create manual observation targets in the Vaonis Singularity application. The manual observation targets are then used to create an observation plan. Since the comet is moving relative to stars, I set up a sequence of 15-minute observations from the point it is dark enough for the telescopes to initialize until the comet falls behind the trees toward the western horizon (~19:00 to 20:30). The observation plan is saved and uploaded to the telescope.
Once the plan is started the device does not need to remain connected to the telescope. The telescope waits until it is dark enough to initialize, then runs the observation plan. The observation data is collected and stored in temporary memory within the telescope. When the observation plan is complete (and before the sun comes up) the telescope closes and shuts down.
As long as the device running the Singularity application is connected to the internet, the manual targets and observation plans are stored in the cloud (within your Singularity account). I make use of this so I can share and run the same manual targets and observation plans on multiple Stellina and Vespera telescopes. Note that you need share the information before making the ad hock WiFi connection between the device running Singularity and the telescope. (Note: I use separate devices for each telescope).
I set up the telescopes and started the observation plan, still not sure if the sky would clear. After dinner when I checked the telescopes (~20:00), four out of five initialized and started observations of the comet even though there still were some clouds. During an observation, the telescopes only saves and stacks images when the view is not obstructed. So, in this case when the comet was blocked by clouds the telescope stopped collecting images until the sky was clear again. I am not sure why the Vespera Passengers telescope didn’t initialize. The comet is getting fainter, and the tail shorter.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera Classic Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera II Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec) using a CLS (city light suppression) filter.Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec).
After the comet dropped below the tree line, the telescopes were set to continue or start multi-night mosaic observations of the Veil Nebulae (NGC 6960 and NGC 6992), the Heart and Fish head Nebulae (IC 1805 and IC 1795), and the Horse Head and Flame Nebulae (IC 434 and NGC 2024). Three of the telescopes (Vespera Classic, Vespera Passenger, and Vespera Pro) were fitted with dual narrowband Hα/OIII (hydrogen alpha/oxygen III) interference filters. The CLS filter remained on the Vespera II telescope, and no filter was used on the Stellina telescope.
