SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Mike Olason
Location of Photo:
Tucson, Arizona
Date/Time of photo:
29 Aug 2023, 1135UT
Equipment:
50mm Finderscope and ST-402ME CCD Camera
Description:
Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) on the morning of 2023 Aug 29 was 1.7 times brighter than on the morning of 2023 Aug 25. The comet is now magnitude 7.4, has a tail greater than 1 degree long and a nice green coma. These images were collected with a small 2" diameter finderscope attached to a CCD camera, the images were only 15-20 seconds long. From SaddleBrooke, Arizona the next several days the comet will rise above the Catalina Mountains at about 4am in the ENE (and in general elsewhere). In the next few weeks the comet will rise about 6 minutes later each morning, rising over the Catalina Mountains at about 5am on the morning of September 8. When the comet does rise above the mountains it will get higher in the sky just like the Sun moves higher in the sky once it rises. Hopefully the comet will continue to brighten enough so that as it rises more into morning twilight we can still see it with our binoculars and telescopes, maybe even with our eyes if we get lucky.
