October 3, 2022 – ALPO Comet News for October 2022
Much of this month’s comet action is shifting to the south. The brightest comet in the sky remains C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS) at 8th magnitude though it is already lost to observers at northern mid-latitudes by early in the month. C/2022 P1 (NEOWISE) should peak around 9th magnitude early in the month. Though visible from both hemispheres it is a much easier site the further south one is. Looking ahead, C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is rapidly brightening from 11th to 10th magnitude and the prospects of it becoming a bright 5th magnitude object early next year still looks good.
Last month the ALPO Comets Section received 81 magnitude estimates and 20 images/sketches of comets C/2022 P1 (NEOWISE), C/2022 E3 (ZTF), C/2020 V2 (ZTF), C/2020 K1 (PANSTARRS), C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS), 422P/Christensen, 395P/Catalina-NEAT, 378P/McNaught, 327P/Van Ness, 286P/Christensen, 285P/LINEAR, 276P/Vorobjov, 259P/Garradd, 238P/Read, 196P/Tichy, 157P/Tritton, 127P/Holt-Olmstead, 117P/Helin-Roman-Alu, 95P/Chiron, 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, 61P/Shajn-Schaldach, 57P/du Toit-Neujmin-Delporte, 51P-D/Harrington, 44P/Reinmuth, 39P/Oterma, 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, 22P/Kopff, 12P/Pons-Brooks and 2P/Encke. A big thanks to our recent contributors: Dan Bartlett, J. J. Gonzalez, Jose Guilherme de Souza Aguiar, Christian Harder, Carl Hergenrother, Eliot Herman, Michael Jäger, John Maikner, Martin Mobberley, Uwe Pilz, 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.
