Joe Stieber's Home Page

The Full Moon and Jupiter
December 14, 2024

No drone here, just the vastly overexposed Full Moon 5.6° from the bright planet Jupiter as they rose above the tree line towards the east-northeast at Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ, on December 14, 2024. Taken at 5:12 pm EST with a handheld iPhone 11. It was automatically exposed 1/4 second at f/1.8, ISO 800. A nasty internal reflection of the overexposed Moon in front of the trees was removed with Adobe Photoshop Elements, then it was cropped to a 16:9 ration and the brightness was mildly reduced. I went to Carranza to look for comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-Atlas) with my 35x115 spotting scope, despite the Moon-brightened sky and the comet fading as it continues to move away from both the Earth and the Sun about two months after its peak display in mid-October 2024, when it could be easily seen, including a nice tail, with unaided eyes. I may have glimpsed it a couple of times on December 14 with the spotter, but it was not seen well enough to claim a sighting. Weather permitting, I'll be back out on December 17 when there will be a brief period of full darkness between the end of astronomical twilight and moonrise. Mouseover for labels.

Gemini's Messier 35 Region
November 30, 2024

Near the foot of Castor in the constellation Gemini, one can find M35, an open cluster that's one of the Messier objects that can be seen with unaided eyes under a dark sky. This snapshot of it was captured from Atsion in Wharton State Forest, NJ, on November 30, 2024. The sky was cloud free and transparency was good. It's from a single raw frame taken at 8:35 pm EST with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera plus a Canon 200 mm f/2.8L telephoto lens on a fixed tripod, then exposed 2 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 6400. It was mildly adjusted with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4, cropped to 67% of the original linear dimensions for a field 6.9° wide x 4.6° high, then saved to this JPEG. The distant, small and much fainter open cluster NGC 2158 is barely visible to the right (southwest) of M35, while the large & coarse open cluster, Collinder 89, is below-left (east-southeast) of M35. Mouseover for labels.

Comet Observing in Moonlight
November 12, 2024

Despite bright moonlight, I decided to make a follow-up observation of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) from Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ, on November 12, 2024. The sky was cloud free and transparency was very good. The comet was first spotted at 6:10 pm EDT with my 35x115 binocular spotting scope and a few minutes later with 15x56 binoculars. Astronomical twilight would end at 6:18 pm and the 88% illuminated Moon was more-or-less behind me at 36° altitude. The comet was not difficult to see in the scope and it had the classic "look" of a comet. The head had a strong central condensation and there was a faint, but unmistakable tail about 0.3° long. At the time, it was in the magnitude 8+ range based on estimates at COBS. Here's a tabulation of my October, November and December 2024 sightings.
This snapshot of the field was taken with a handheld iPhone 11 at 6:25 pm. The EXIF data indicated a 1.1 second exposure at f/1.8, ISO 6400; however, the duration of the shutter button press was several seconds. The 35x115 spotting scope, pointed more-or-less towards the comet, is on a gimbal mount atop a substantial photo tripod, providing nice alt-azimuth movement. Note that there's no finder, it's just "point and shoot."
The Moon is just outside the upper-left-hand corner of the frame, so the car's shadow is on the right. The bright star near the top, left of center, is first magnitude Fomalhaut (Alpha PsA) at 19° altitude in the south-southeast. Notice the bright reflections on the passenger side of the car. Since it's the shadow side of the car, they can't be the Moon's reflection. Instead, it's brilliant Venus just above the trees in the southwest.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
October 28, 2024

I decided to take a final (?) snapshot of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), so I went to Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ, on October 28, 2024. The sky was mostly cloud free, but transparency didn't seem particularly good. The comet was first spotted with 12x50 binoculars a couple of minutes after arrival at 7:34 pm EDT, and a few minutes after the end of astronomical twilight at 7:31 pm. The visible tail in the 12x50s was nearly 2° long, but in the image, it extends most of the 4° span to 66 Oph. The comet was not seen with unaided eyes; it's now around magnitude 6 based on estimates at COBS. Here's a tabulation of my October and November 2024 sightings.
This snapshot is from a single raw frame taken taken at 7:43 pm with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera and a Canon 200 mm, f/2.8L telephoto lens on a fixed tripod. It was exposed 4 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 4000 and set to 4500 K white balance. It was mildly adjusted and slightly cropped to a field approximately 9.4° wide x 6.3° high. Note that focus is unintentionally imperfect. I initially focused on the viewing screen at 1x, then neglected to refine it at 5x and 10x. Unless enlarged, it's not noticeable, and may even enhance the non-enlarged view. Mouseover for labels.
Taurus Poniatovii is an obsolete constellation, but its distinctive, Hyades-like V-shaped head (shown on mouseover), is visible with unaided eyes from a dark site. The open cluster, IC 4665, is also visible with unaided eyes on a good night at a dark site, the only IC object I know of that is so. Both are easy in binoculars, even at a not-so-dark site. Barnard's Star, V2500 Oph, is in the neighborhood too (shown on mouseover). More about it here. The most recent estimates at AAVSO are nominally magnitude 9.5.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
October 22, 2024

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLS) was observed from the semi-suburban field behind the Columbus Farmers Market on Rt 206 in Columbus, NJ, on October 22, 2024. The sky was cloud free, but there was a definite haze and the odor of smoke, probably from a fire in the Pines (we've been in a dry spell). The comet was spotted with 12x50 binoculars at 6:59 pm EDT and the visual tail was about 2° long. In the picture, the tail extends about 5° from the nucleus, although it's difficult to gauge because the endpoint is vague. Here's a tabulation of my October 2024 sightings.
This snapshot is from a single raw frame taken taken at 7:31 pm with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera and a Yongnuo 85 mm, f/1.8 lens on a fixed tripod. It was exposed 1 second at f/1.8, ISO 3200 and set to 4800 K white balance. It was mildly adjusted and cropped to a field approximately 17° wide x 14° high. Mouseover for labels.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
October 19, 2024

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLS) was observed from Carranza Field in Wharton State Forest, NJ, on October 19, 2024. With unaided eyes, and averted vision, about 10° of the tail's length could be seen. With 8x42 binoculars and a 115 mm spotting scope at 35x, about 15° of tail could be seen, although not all at once, one needed to sweep along it's length. It was a splendid view!
This snapshot is from a single raw frame taken taken at 7:23 pm EDT with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera and a 50 mm Sigma Art lens on a fixed tripod. It was exposed 4 seconds at f/2.0, ISO 3200 and auto white balance. It was mildly adjusted and cropped to a field approximately 19° square. Mouseover for labels.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
October 14, 2024

On October 14, 2024, the sky cleared by sunset, so I went to Bishops Gate in Mt Laurel to attempt to observe comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). It was first sighted with 12x50 binoculars at 6:59 pm EDT, 38 minutes after sunset at 6:21 pm and then with unaided eyes at 7:15 pm, including a visible tail that extended upwards for a couple of degrees. It was also observed with a 115 mm spotting scope at 35x. Clouds moved in as the comet approached setting at 8:28 pm, and by 8:15 pm, it was completely overcast to the west.
This snapshot was taken at 7:27 pm with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera and a Canon 200 mm f/2.8L telephoto lens on a fixed tripod. It's from a single raw frame exposed 1 second at f/2.8, ISO 1600 and 5600 K white balance. It was mildly adjusted in Canon's Digital Photo Professional then cropped to a field about 6° wide x 8° high. In this view, the tail is about 6° long. 5.5° above the nucleus, the tail crosses the globular cluster, Messier 5, next to the star 5 Serpentis. Mouseover for labels.

Aurorae in Suburban New Jersey
October 10, 2024

On October 10, 2024, I went to Bishops Gate in Mt Laurel to attempt my first sighting of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in the evening sky after solar conjunction on October 9, but the solar elongation was only about 8°. Sunset was at 6:27 pm EDT and I looked for it unsuccessfully between 6:25 and 7:00 pm with 15x56 binoculars and at 25x88 with a spotting scope. I also looked for the extended tail of the comet from 7:00 to 7:15 pm unsuccessfully.
As I was finishing packing up, I turned around from the car and looked to the west, the approximate azimuth of the comet, and was astonished to see a reddish glow in the sky - aurora! I had seen the internet traffic earlier in the day about the possibility of aurora this evening, but I wasn't optimistic about seeing anything (as if aurorae go out of their way to avoid me; it's probably been close to twenty years since I've seen any). Regardless, the reddish glow was easy to see, and I ultimately saw some greenish color too, which shows much better in the pictures than to the unaided eye. In the picture below, I visually saw a pale gray patch, but in the smartphone's live view, it was unmistakably green. The display lasted from about 7:20 until 7:45 pm. I then left, but came back and met with a friend there around 9 pm. We hung around, and then just after 10 pm, I noticed a reddish patch to the west and we had some more aurorae until nearly 11 pm, but not as intense as the first round I saw earlier. Splendid nevertheless.
Both of these snapshots were taken with a handheld iPhone 11. The one above at 7:26 pm looking roughly north, the one below at 7:29 pm looking roughly northeast.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) — Not
October 6, 2024

On October 6, 2024, I made a dawn visit to the observation platform parking lot at Thompson's Beach, NJ, hoping to make a final sighting of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) before it reaches solar conjunction on October 9, then moves into our evening sky. My last sighting was on the morning of October 4 from Swede Run in Moorestown, NJ, a suburban location, when the coma, with a strong central condensation and a stubby tail, was spotted with 15x56 binoculars at 6:13 am, 16½° solar elongation.
Thompson's Beach is a dark site (for New Jersey), and being in a vast salt marsh, the horizons are quite low towards the east. I've spotted rising Mercury and Venus at less than a degree apparent altitude from this spot. When I arrived on October 6, shortly before the start of astronomical twilight at 5:30 am EDT, I was able to see Uranus, M35, M41 and M47 with unaided eyes. However, even in the dark, I could see the all-to-familiar streaky clouds along the eastern horizon.
This picture was taken at 6:18 am, 4 minutes after A3 rose at 6:14 am and 47 minutes before sunrise. For reference, the red dot (a distant antenna tower) at the top of the tree line left of center is at 92° azimuth (as determined by stars visible in an earlier picture taken when it was dark). The coma here would have been about three-quarters of a degree altitude, 95° azimuth and 11½° solar elongation, but it's masked by the streaky clouds. There's also no sign of the extended tail (at least 10° long) that would have been projecting up and to the right of the coma. Neither the coma nor the tail were seen visually with unaided eyes, 8x42 or 15x56 binoculars through 6:30 am.
Captured with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera with a 100 mm f/2.8L telephoto/macro lens on a fixed tripod. Exposed 1/4 second at f/4.0, ISO 800, automatic white balance. It's a single raw frame unprocessed, other than cropping to a 16:9 ratio using 77% of the width and 65% of the height for a field 15.7° wide x 8.9° high, then converting to this JPEG with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4.

Foggy Mercury & Regulus
September 11, 2024

On September 11, 2024, the swift-moving planet Mercury was 3.1° from the first-magnitude star Regulus, Alpha Leonis (mouseover for labels). This image was captured at 5:38 am EDT from Swede Run in Moorestown, NJ, when Mercury was at 3.9° altitude, shortly after rising in streaky clouds and as seen through ground fog during morning twilight, which began at 5:05 am EDT; sunrise would be at 6:37 am. Taken with a Canon EOS RP DSLM camera and a Canon 200 mm f/2.8L telephoto lens on a fixed tripod. This single raw frame was automatically exposed 1.6 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 1600 with auto white balance. It was slightly adjusted with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4 and not cropped for a field 10.3° wide x 6.9° high. Spotting Mercury (initially with 12x50 binoculars and later with unaided eyes) completed an overnight seven-planet sighting sweep.

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