July 3, 2023 – ALPO Comet News for July 2023
July will be a nice month for comet watchers. While there are no “bright” comets, three comets should make nice targets for binoculars or small telescopes. The brightest comet of the month, 7th magnitude C/2021 T4 (Lemmon), will be well placed for southern hemisphere observers as it races from the morning into the evening sky. Northern observers will be able to observe it early in the month though a bright Moon and a decreasing elevation will make it a bit challenging. Northern observers will have 9th magnitude C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) all to themselves as it moves through the northern circumpolar sky. Both hemispheres can observe 9-10th magnitude C/2020 V2 (ZTF) in the morning sky. Imagers are asked to watch one of next year’s potential bright objects, C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), at 16th magnitude in the evening sky.
Last month the ALPO Comets Section received 99 magnitude estimates, images, and sketches of comets C/2023 E1 (ATLAS), C/2023 A3 (Tsuchishan-ATLAS), C/2022 E3 (ATLAS), C/2022 A2 (PANSTARRS), C/2021 T4 (Lemmon), C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS), C/2020 V2 (ZTF), C/2020 K1 (PANSTARRS), C/2019 U5 (PANSTARRS), C/2019 T4 (ATLAS), C/2019 L3 (ATLAS), C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS), 364P/PANSTARRS, 276P/Vorobjov, 237P/LINEAR, 126P/IRAS, 77P/Longmore, 71P/Clark, and 12P/Pons-Brooks. A big thanks to our June contributors: J. J. Gonzalez, Jose Guilherme de Souza Aguiar, Christian Harder, Carl Hergenrother, Eliot Herman, John Maikner, Michael Rosolina, and Chris Wyatt.
The monthly ALPO Comet News PDF can be found here. A shorter version of this report is posted on a dedicated Cloudy Nights forum. All are encouraged to join the discussion over at Cloudy Nights.
