Here’s my latest image of Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas, taken Monday evening around 7:30 PM from the soccer fields on Highway 300, Little Rock. This comet is incredible, even under the waxing gibbous Moon and lingering twilight it stretched from the crook of my thumb to the end of my index finger at arm’s length. Go see it.
This image was made from 78 one second shots at ISO 3200, f/6.3 and 189mm focal length. Stacked and processed.
Here is my first picture of Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas taken last night at the River Ridge Observatory. My friend, John Reed, announced that the comet might be visible after sunset when he arrived for the monthly meeting of the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society. I thought it wouldn’t be for a few days. Anyway, we all delayed the start of the meeting while we watched in the glacially slow darkening of the sky. Finally, someone spotted it from the deck and we all gathered there. Obviously just inches above the trees about 30 minutes after sunset it was barely visible. I had focused on the Moon beforehand but this looks soft to me. Then again, comets are soft objects and the head looks fairly sharp. This does look like it will be a bright comet so try to get out and see it with your binoculars.
The first image was taken a minute or two before the start of the umbral phase of the eclipse. A section of the Moon is in shadow but not completely dark. The second image is at the peak of this eclipse and a portion of the Moon is in complete darkness, covered by the umbral shadow.
