Alan MacRobert

Oct 31, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Alan MacRobert

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1■ November fireballs? Every year from roughly late October through mid-November, a truly dazzling Taurid meteor just might take you by surprise in the night. If you get very lucky. Normally the broad, weak, South and North Taurid meteor showers sputter along very unimpressively. Under ideal conditions you might see 5 or 10 ordinary little meteors per hour during the poorly defined, weeks-long maximum when the two branches of the shower overlap.

Oct 24, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Alan MacRobert

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced "tzeh-chin-SHAHN") continues to shrink and fade as it recedes into the distance in the western sky right after nightfall. It's still a fine target for binoculars and telescopes, moderately high in Ophiuchus in moonless darkness. See Bob King's latest update, Grab Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS by the Tail, including a finder chart running through November. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25■ Venus is in conjunction with orange Antares low in twilight, as shown below.

Oct 17, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Alan MacRobert

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced "Choo-chin-SHAHN") is still in good evening view high in the west for Northern Hemisphere skywatchers, though it's both fading and shrinking as it flies away from the Sun and Earth. Moonlight has been compromising the view; full Moon (a supermoon no less!) came on the evenings of October 16th and 17th. But on Sunday the 20th a window of dark sky begins opening between twilight's end and moonrise. After that, the Moon will set almost an hour later each night.

Oct 10, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Alan MacRobert

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced "Choo-chin-SHAHN") is entering its week of glory for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. It has swung around the Sun and begins emerging into evening view around Friday the 11th, very low due west in twilight. Binoculars will help you pick it up through the fading afterglow of day. Each day the comet gets higher in the west and sets later and later, displaying itself in plain view (we hope!) in late twilight and then, as the days pass, night.

Oct 3, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Alan MacRobert

The bright Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has swing around the Sun and will finally emerge low in evening twilight late this week for us in the world's mid-northern latitudes. Binoculars will help you pick it up through the twilight, quite low due west, starting around October 10th or 11th. Its tiny head will probably shine at about magnitude 0. Its long tail, once the sky grows dark enough, will point more or less straight up.