Terry Lovejoy

Very nice comet, it was awesome seeing a 5th magnitude comet and Supernova 1987A together in binoculars.

As part of my normal morning routine, I go to bsky and look for the latest #bskycometograph y post :) Keep posting Maik!

Turns out Davidson discovered C/1889 O1 from the town of Walkerston, QLD. Not knowing where Walkerston is (QLD is a very large state) I had to look it up. Turns out it was a town I frequently drove through for work in the 1990's. Even ran out of fuel there once and had to push the car :(

This was a very nice comet. I had a fabulous view of it on August 4, 1984, through a 40cm scope at low elevation. It was striking with individual ion tail streamers clearly visible emanating from a highly condensed mag 4-5 coma.

Andrew Pearce has been doing a fantastic job at doing comet photometry from scans of old plates taken from Perth Observatory. He sent through this image of C/1970 N1 from July 8, 1970, when he obtained m1=10.4 with a coma of 2.2'.

Lovely day for a walk today, joined by a couple of friendly goats!

Its perihelion drops from its current 1.25 AU to just under 1.00 AU in 2037. It might be enough add a magnitude to its brightness, as well as making it look more condensed. Perhaps not a large difference, but we'll welcome it!

The return in 2045 looks interesting passing 0.21 AU from earth and with a significantly reduced perihelion from an encounter with Jupiter in 2037.

I still can't believe 1) we got another bright Kreutz comet 2) I found it! During the 1980's there was a lot of anticipation that the next bright Kreutz comet was around the corner and it never came...until 2011.

Likely my last discovery as I decided to hang up the hat not long after this. Amateur comet searches require a huge time commitment. Still it was a great to find 6 comets over the span of 10 years!

Nicely framed with Antares and M4. I am guessing an accidental discovery?

"In binoculars, the comet is a superb sight, with the 7x35 showing 5.0° of tail. The tail is of high surface brightness, fading gradually and fanning out along its length. The border of the tail fans out from the outer coma. A strong central condensation is evident (DC 7)."

"Comet Levy is observed from 30km South Seymour, 70km North Melbourne. Sky conditions are clear and fairly dark.
The comet is easily visible to the naked eye and is estimated as mag 4.1. Almost immediately, a faint gas tail 3°5 is discerned against the field, thus betraying its cometary nature."

My most memorable observation of C/1990 K1 (Levy) from Sep 15.44, 1990 UT.

I note that his father was also a well know figure in 1800's Australian astronomy, having stayed there between 1821-1829.

Thank you, that is excellent!

Because of the strong similarity of the orbital elements to 153P (in fact when 153P was recovered it wasn't immediately certain whether it was a return of C/1661 C1 or C/1532 R1). Looking forward to the 1861 J1 linkage!

First of all, thank you (and Gary) for your excellent work. 2097 is a bit of a stretch for me I'm afraid, not sure I'll even be around for the returns of 1P and C/1917 F1 :( Btw have you done any searches for previous returns of C/1532 R1?

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.

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.

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) still very obvious in binoculars at mag 1.5. This mornings view Jan 6 18:10 UT with a 318mm f5.8 lens and Olympus em1.2.

I think its just in the way the iphone processes a slightly extended object. I am pretty confident in mag 1.9 that morning, as measured off calibrated raw images.

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) photographed using an iphone? Sure.

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) now close to mag 1.5. From T75 Chile on Jan 5.

This is Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS)

Brighter again tonight (2025 Jan 4.37 UT) at mag 1.9. This was made using the T75 25cm reflector at iTelescope's Chile facility.

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.

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.

C/2024 G3 peaking past some cloud on Dec 31 from Cleveland Pt, Queensland.

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) still brightening nicely. Remotely imaged from iTelescope's Chile location on Jan 1. This is a 0.5x0.5 degree FOV.