We have had enough notable astronomical events this year to fill up an advent calendar. Solar eclipse, consecutive supermoons, a second moon, partial lunar eclipse, aurora, and the story doesn't end there. In the month of October, Earth received a visitor from the Oort Cloud - Comet C/2023 A3, also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.
Discovery:
This comet was first discovered on January 9th, 2023 by an observatory in China - 紫金山天文台, which is actually not too far away from my hometown and a pleasant surprise (I hate the way it's translated, but it really means "Purple Gold Mountain". I will try to pay a visit on my trip home). It was then independently observed by one of the ATLAS telescopes in South Africa, hence the joint name by convention. I personally wish the name were shorter, it's quite a mouthful.
New data is still trickling in for this pretty visitor, but it would seem it has left us forever. Previously estimated that it would come back in around 80,000 years, it is now confirmed that this comet might be thrown out of the solar system altogether, even out of the Oort Cloud.
Welp, it was fun while it lasted. Seemed a little toxic for our solar system.
Photographing the Comet:
I followed standard procedure - Canon F-1, flimsy tripod, and a range of lenses (50mm, 85mm, and 500mm). They all performed quite well.
Kodak Traffic Surveillance Film SO-033:
Now this is a fun B&W film I picked from eBay recently. It's a bulk roll, so I loaded it by hand in a Watson (I have two Watsons now, yep). This film was once used in conjunction with radar guns for law enforcement (capturing license plates, I presume). It has a nice contrast that I wanted to test out on the comet. It is a bit old (exp. 2003, so around two decades), so I rated it at ISO 100 (originally ISO 400, so I overexposed by one stop per decade).
During shooting, depending on the size of the lens, I used different shutter speeds. I followed the 500 rule roughly for the shorter lenses (up to 20, maybe even 30 seconds) to avoid star trailing in the background, and for the super telephoto lens, I just tried to shoot for however long possible (up to 10 seconds?).
I am happy with the way it turned out, given that that night was not only a moonlit night, it was a supermoon - Hunter's Moon. Of course I wished it were brighter, but oh well, I am happy enough just to see it through my long lens.
Out of this world.
Sources:
NASA: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Arrives from Afar: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153444/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-arrives-from-afar
Reddit: Kodak TSF film: https://www.reddit.com/r/AnalogCommunity/comments/1126m58/kodak_tsffilm/
Wikipedia