I made plans to view Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) many months ago, soon after it was discovered and the ephemeris was published, I made lists of the nights that it would be best viewed from my location. I even tried one morning observation. But I have seen nothing ... until last evening. I suppose it had even greater significance yesterday since it would have been my mother's 99th birthday.
I used Stellarium to plot the comet and watched as it reached perihelion on October 12 and head towards Earth as it began it's 80,000 year orbit through deep space.
Even last evening did not look good. We had a cold front pass through earlier and showers spoiled most of the day. But towards evening I could see clearing moving from the north to south and figured there would be a chance.
At 7 pm I began checking. Nothing. But later, perhaps 7:45 pm, I caught the first glimpse of the comet with my cell phone. I never saw it with my bare eyes and that's probably partly due to my cataracts. But it is certainly not "the comet of the century" as earlier advertised. It is very dim here with Dayton's light pollution, maybe magnitude +3 or so. Comet Hale-Bopp was much more impressive - and colorful, too.
But a comet is a comet and is not to be missed.
Many of the pictures I've seen are quite impressive but I suppose they are mostly "stacked" images made with great cameras and other astronomical gear. I had only a Pixel cell phone and an old Canon digital camera. Even so, I was able to see and enjoy the comet with them.
I took close to 50 photos but these are the best. Many are cropped from larger frames but all are unedited.
As the comet rises higher each night, I suppose I'll try another observation session. But the comet is getting more distant every night and will be even dimmer. So I suspect these shots will be the best I can do.
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