‘Stars Over Girdwood’ class views Comet
By John Gallup
TN News Contributor
The Stars Over Girdwood class was finally able to catch up with comet 2023 ATLAS A3 as it made its way back out into the outer solar system recently.
It was right at the edge of naked eye visibility, with better eyes than mine could just make it out, but binoculars showed it well, and phone cameras were able to pick it up surprisingly easily.
It is fading as it leaves the sun’s radiation behind, to return in 80,000 years or so. We may make another foray out on Saturday, if the clear weather holds, but here’s what the phone cameras picked up earlier this week.
The sky was actually quite a bit darker. The automatic three second exposure lets in a lot more light than your eyes perceive, giving the illusion that it was shot earlier in the evening and would be easier to see. This shot was taken around 8:30 pm.
