Terry Lovejoy

@cometguy.bsky.social

IT Systems Admin and Team Lead Would be House Renovator Dabbler of Photography Like Mountain walks Amateur Astronomer & Comet Discoverer

Moonlight is hampering observations of Comet C/2026 A1 tonight. But nonetheless here it is taken remotely from Siding Spring Observatory using a 51cm F7 telescope March 1 (9:44 UT). Green filter magnitude 12.2.

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Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) continues to brighten. I acquired this image early Feb 21 remotely from Chile using a 25cm f3.8 ASA Newtonian. Magnitude 13, a hint of tail and passing by spiral galaxy NGC1232.

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The new comet from home. This is September 13 8:47, 2025 UT. I've cropped it 4 x 4 degrees and I've marked the bright star Spica and Mars. The uneven sky background is a unfortunate consequence of strong light pollution from home.

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C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) Jan 13.715, 2025 UT- Processed from images courtesy of SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory). An RGB image was created by mapping the color channels to images acquired with different filters using SOHO's LASCO C3 camera.

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Didn't think I would get a view of G3 this morning due to low cloud, but when I checked back around 4:25am there it was in 10x42 binoculars an obvious comet with starlike coma. No magnitude estimate possible, but comparison of images with yesterday suggests m1=1.0.

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Jan 3, 2025. Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) brighter still. Mag 2 this morning and clearly visible in 10x42 Binoculars (but not with naked eye). This view was from near Dalby, QLD.

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Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has brightened a magnitude in just 24 hours. Here it is Jan 2.75 UT at mag 3.7. This is tightly cropped 2 x 2 degree FOV. Quite easy to see in my 10-22x50mm Nikon binoculars.

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Comet C/2024 G3, with a tripod mounted 135mm lens. Here is my image this morning (Dec 21.74, 2024 UT) rising over Moreton Bay near Brisbane. Image is cropped to 8x8 degrees. 3 x 2.5sec exposures at 135mmF1.8.

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Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) Dec 19.349 from iTelescope T75 scope (25cm F3.8) in Chile. This is a 0.5 degree FOV crop and a stack of 10x30sec exposures. Andrew Pearce obtained magnitude 7.6 with a 1.2' coma. Note he obtained mag 7.8 from my previous image on Dec 18.

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Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) Dec 18.353 from iTelescope T75 scope (25cm F3.8) in Chile. Thanks to iTelescope temporarily allow the scope to point near the horizon. This is a 0.5 degree FOV crop and a stack of 5x30sec exposures. My estimate from image using a 1.7' aperture is 7.6.

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