June 2, 2024 – ALPO Comet News for June 2024
This month, the theme will be anti-tails as the Earth passes through the orbital planes of our two returning Halley-type comets. Images are already showing 12P/Pons-Brooks’ strong anti-tail, which will only get stronger as we approach the orbital plane crossing on June 7. 13P/Olbers will probably have a weaker anti-tail, but one should still be visible as we approach its orbital plane crossing on June 17.
At the start of June, Pons-Brooks will be the brightest comet in the sky, though it is only visible to southern observers. As the month progresses, it will fade to 8th magnitude and hand the title of brightest comet in the sky to Olbers which will brighten from 7th to 6th magnitude this month. Unlike Pons-Brooks, Olbers will be visible at northern latitudes but not at southern mid-latitudes.
The other big news comet is C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). This comet has the potential to be a bright object this October but has recently undergone a fading over the past month or so. This doesn’t mean the comet is breaking up, at least not yet, but it does suggest caution with any predictions about its brightness going forward. Like many long-period comets, we’ll have to wait and see with Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. It will be visible to observers in both hemispheres in June and “should” brighten from 10th to 9th magnitude in the evening sky.
Three other comets are expected to be between magnitude 10 and 12. 479P/Elenin and C/2023 V4 (Camarasa-Duszanowicz) are in the evening sky, and C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS) is in the morning sky, though Camarasa-Duszanowicz and PANSTARRS are only visible from the northern hemisphere.
Last month, the ALPO Comets Section received 128 images and 246 magnitude estimates of 25 comets: C/2024 F2 (PANSTARRS), C/2023 V4 (Camarasa-Duszanowicz), C/2023 C2 (ATLAS), C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), C/2022 L2 (ATLAS), C/2022 E2 (ATLAS), C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS), C/2021 G2 (ATLAS), C/2020 K1 (PANSTARRS), C/2019 U5 (PANSTARRS), C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS), P/2020 WJ5 (Lemmon), 479P/Elenin, 362P/(457175) 2008 GO98, 349P/Lemmon, 251P/LINEAR, 217P/LINEAR, 209P/LINEAR, 144P/Kushida, 65P/Gunn, 62P/Tsuchinshan, 32P/Comas Sola, 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, 13P/Olbers, and 12P/Pons-Brooks.
A big thanks to our recent contributors: Salvador Aguirre, Dan Bartlett, Dan Crowson, José J. Chambó, Jose Guilherme de Souza Aguiar, J. J. Gonzalez Suarez, Christian Harder, Carl Hergenrother, Eliot Herman, Rik Hill, Michael Jäger, John Maikner, Gianluca Masi, Michael Mattiazzo, Mike Olason, Ludovic Perbet, Uwe Pilz, Michael Rosolina, Gregg Ruppel, Chris Schur, Greg T. Shanos, Willian Souza, 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.
