September 2, 2023 – ALPO Comet News for September 2023
August was a busy month for comet watchers. In addition to observing 12P/Pons-Brooks in outburst and 9th magnitude C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) and C/2020 V2 (ZTF), a new bright amateur comet was discovered around mid-month. C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) is now 6th magnitude and should brighten to 4th-5th magnitude before being lost in the glare of the Sun. September will also see returning periodic comets 2P/Encke and 103P/Hartley brighten to 9th and 7th magnitude by the end of the month, respectively.
Also, observable in September are C/2020 V2 (ZTF) at 9th magnitude, 12P/Pons-Brooks and C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS) at 11th mag, C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS) brightening from 12th to 11th magnitude, C/2021 T4 (Lemmon) fading from 10th to 11th magnitude, and C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) fading from 10th to 12th magnitude.
Last month the ALPO Comets Section received 277 observations of comets C/2023 P1 (Nishimura), C/2023 E1 (ATLAS), C/2023 A3 (Tsuchishan-ATLAS), C/2022 W3 (Leonard), C/2022 JK5 (PANSTARRS), C/2022 A2 (PANSTARRS), C/2021 X1 (Maury-Attard), C/2021 T4 (Lemmon), C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS), C/2020 V2 (ZTF), C/2020 O2 (Amaral), C/2020 K1 (PANSTARRS), C/2019 T4 (ATLAS), C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS), P/2014 W1 (PANSTARRS), 364P/PANSTARRS, 347P/PANSTARRS, 326P/Hill, 310P/Hill, 276P/Vorobjov, 242P/Spahr, 237P/LINEAR, 126P/IRAS, 103P/Hartley, 80P/Peters-Hartley, 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, 32P/Comas Sola, 12P/Pons-Brooks, and 2P/Encke. A big thanks to our August contributors: Dan Bartlett, Michel Besson, Michel Deconinck, J. J. Gonzalez, Jose Guilherme de Souza Aguiar, Andrew Hampton, Christian Harder, Scott Harrington, Carl Hergenrother, Eliot Herman, Michael Jäger, John Maikner, Martin Mobberley, Charles Morris, Gary T. Nowak, Mike Olason, Uwe Pilz, Ludovic Prebet, Michael Rosolina, Greg Ruppel, Greg Shanos, Tenho Tuomi, 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.
