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Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is well on its way to becoming the best comet since 2020. Observations submitted to the Comets Section place the comet around magnitude 3 with a visual tail up to 2 degrees in length. It is currently a morning object very low in the east during twilight and will continue to be into the first days of October. One can find a plot here showing the elevation of the comet at the start of nautical twilight. Needless to say, a clear sky and a low, unobstructed horizon are needed. But don’t fret; the comet will rapidly climb into the evening sky by mid-October as a 1st to 2nd magnitude object, perhaps even with a prominent anti-tail reminiscent of C/1956 R1 (Arend-Roland). Follow the development of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS on the Comets Section page.

Image by Chris Schur on 2024 Sept 23 12:15 UT. 8" f/2 RASA, ZWO ASI2600MC, RGB = 3 mins total. 10 second subs. The images are about 40 seconds apart as the comet rose over the Mogollon Rim in northern Arizona.

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(July 31, 2024) -For those who attended this year’s ALPO 2024 Conference, THANK YOU so much to both the presenters AND the viewers, no matter whether it was via Zoom or the ALPO YouTube Channel! With 13 presenters and a total of 85 viewers over the two days, we believe we really did the amateur astronomical community proud. The conference was held July 26 and 27.

And here’s another shout-out to our door prize donors — Celestron, Explore Scientific and Catseye Collimation System. (We ask that the winners of their door prizes to please take some time to write a thank-you letter (or email) to those door prize contributors.)

For those who missed it:

• Tim Robertson (ALPO Conference 2024 chairman) for overseeing things and making the online arrangements run so smoothly.

• Matt Will (ALPO Membership Secretary/Treasurer) for his talk on the status of the organization today.

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Jupiter's Turbulent GRS
10/9/2024

NASA logo The Hubble Space Telescope focused on Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot for the first three months of this year. The scientists found that the storm is jiggling like gelatin, squeezing in and out at the same time as it moves faster and slower. UV observations also demonstrated that the core is brightest when the spot is at its greatest size during the oscillations.

Unraveling the Spiders on Mars
9/11/2024

NASA Logo No, it’s not a throwback to David Bowie – NASA has been studying “spiders” on Mars and scientists at JPL think they have a better understanding of how they form. Discovered in 2003 via images from orbiters and more formally termed “Araneiform Terrain”, they appear as spider-like clusters of dark lines in Mars’ southern hemisphere. Recent experiments support the hypothesis that they form as the ground under the carbon dioxide ice is warmed and sublimates the ice, eventually cracking it and spewing out the dark material.

Check the Events Calendar

All Times are in Universal Time (UT)

2024-10-10 18:55
First Quarter Moon

2024-10-12
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) reaches perigee

2024-10-14
Mars at Western quadrature; large NPH should be visible

2024-10-14 18:00
Saturn 0.1° south of Moon, occultation South Africa to China

2024-10-16 21:08
Start of Carrington Rotation 2290

2024-10-17 11:26
Full Moon, largest of the year

2024-10-19 21:00
Moon 0.2° north of Pleiades

2024-10-21
Orionid meteor shower

2024-10-24 08:03
Last Quarter Moon

2024-11-01 12:47
New Moon (lunation 1260)

Explore our Galleries

Credit: Gregory Shanos
Equipment: 25cm f/10 SCT, ASI178MM
Cloud structure in our sister planet is revealed in this UV image from June, 2023.

Credit: Gary Walker
Equipment: 254mm APM refractor
The GRS approaches the central meridian with ovals A7 and A8 below it in this image from earlier in 2024