After its emergence from the Sun’s glare into the October sky, Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS put on a decent show as a naked-eye comet, but its fade into binocular and small-telescope territory
was fairly rapid.
At the start of December, it’s predicted to shine with an integrated magnitude of +9.0, fading to +10.5 by the end of the month.
This still places it well within reach of small telescopes.
In December, comet A3 is visible in the evening sky near Altair (Alpha (α) Aquilae) in Aquila, the Eagle.
Altair is a star of summer, but thanks to the long nights of December remains visible in the early evening following sunset and evening twilight.
But you don’t have a lot of time to catch it at its best, as the region of sky in which the comet is contained will sink rapidly towards the west-northwest horizon following the point when true darkness arrives.
The comet traverses the centre of Aquila during December, the key navigational points being Altair with its two flanking stars, Alshain (Beta (β) Aquilae) and Tarazed (Gamma (γ) Aquilae), together with the star at the centre of the constellation, Delta (δ) Aquilae.
Locate these and you shouldn’t have too much trouble locating the comet.
If you've been observing or photographing Comet A3, share your memories and images with us by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com
