It's been a great year for comet chasers so far, with the first half of 2024 seeing a wealth of bright comets visible in the sky.
All eyes are currently on comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), which is visible in the constellation Virgo as of early June 2024 and moving towards the southern portion of Leo.
It's thought the comet could become a naked-eye spectacle in September and October of this year.
But there's always a danger that, like C/2012 S1 (ISON) did in late 2013, it could break up and fizzle out just at the moment it's due to reach its brightest.
So how is C/2023 looking at the moment, and what might we expect from it, come autumn 2024?
José J. Chambo is a comet observer and photographer who is well-known to anyone with an interest in spotting and photographing comets.
He's been tracking and imaging C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) over the past few months, keeping an eye on its changing appearance and brightness.
José captured the above image on 8 May 2024 from Valencia, Spain.
"After many cloudy nights, on 8 May I was finally able to image comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) again in a long series of shots to create a colour image," he says.
"Despite its unchanging appearance, its dust tail continues to appear longer due to our changing perspective from Earth, reaching a length of almost 9 arcminutes in this image.
"As for its brightness, it remains at magnitude 10.5. I'm waiting for it to resume activity and not compromise peak brightness too much for October.
"Below the comet you can see barred spiral galaxy NGC 4904."
So what does José think of the chance that comet C/2023 A3 will become bright, even naked-eye in autumn 2024?
"There is a small problem," he says.
"Since mid-April, the comet's light curve has stalled, remaining at magnitude 10.5.
"This kind of pause in activity often happens with new comets coming from the Oort Cloud for the first time.
"Usually, they recover within a few days, but this could negatively affect the maximum brightness C/2023 A3 reaches in October 2024.
"The forecast is that it will reach magnitude 0, but at that time, it won't be visible from Earth because it will be in conjunction with the Sun.
"When it reappears in our skies in mid-October, it could be at magnitude 1. However, this is not certain; the comet could do anything.
"It will enter conjunction at the end of July, and we won't see it again until October, making it very difficult to make an accurate forecast until it appears in the field of the SOHO Space Telescope on 7 October for some days.
"The suspense is on."
For more info, read our guide on how to locate C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
See more of José's work at cometografia.es and follow him on Instagram at @cometografia.
