Fwd: Comet 3I/ATLAS in Binoculars

[Steve Gottlieb]

I’m forwarding this post from Scott Harrington on Adventures in Deep Space about the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS  It’s now visible (if we had clear skies) in the early morning sky, so if there’s a break in the weather try and take a look – we may never have a better opportunity to see a comet from another solar system.

Steve

From: Scott Harrington <sn4...@gmail.com>

Howdy all,

Just a friendly head's up that I got out and observed comet 3I/ATLAS in my Canon 15x50 IS binoculars this morning while it was east of Porrima. I had hoped to wait a few more days to attempt to see it in my 10-inch, but alas, it was forecasted that this would be my last clear morning for a good while. So, with the crescent moon just 4 degrees south of the comet, I first attempted to view it with my 6-inch. It was easily seen as a 2-3' wide diffuse coma with a diffuse nucleus. Then I observed it in the binoculars after blocking the Moon with the chimney on our house. This allowed me to not only see the comet but estimate it at about magnitude +9.5. I was not expecting it to be this easy!

I also looked at K1 ATLAS in Leo Minor with binoculars and it is even brighter with a nice tail. Apparently, it's brightened by at least a magnitude after several chunks of its nucleus broke off. In fact, at 164x in my 6-inch I could detect the second nucleus right behind the first one.

Scott H.

[Vishal Kasliwal]

Do we know how dark his skies were? Do we have a shot at seeing the comet from San Jose?

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[Philippe Fossier]

What "other" solar system would that be? 

~ philippe

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[Ted Hauter]

Excellent point Steve.

No guarantee more comets. Might be 100 years to see another NEOWISE. Made sure to get to Bortle 1.

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[Paresh Khanapurkar]

Saw this on Space.com

https://www.space.com/stargazing/watch-interstellar-comet-3iatlas-speed-away-from-the-sun-in-free-telescope-livestream-nov-16-2025

YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/live/krU8gN-J9gY?si=uDaJ18pGMaAXcIng

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