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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Mountain, North Dakota

Date/Time of photo:

2025 Nov 3, 0050UT

Equipment:

50mm f/5 Refractor and IMX462 camera

Description:

Comet C/2025 T1 (ATLAS) brightened very quickly from the time it was discovered several weeks ago at magnitude 16 and is now around magnitude 10, but it does seem to have stopped brightening at magnitude 10. Speculation is now about what made it brighten so quickly, a major eruption of course and what might have been the cause. In this image the comet was magnitude 10.4 with a 4' wide coma under a very bright Moonlit sky, a similar image taken 5 days ago had the comet at magnitude 11.5 with a 2.4' wide coma. Unless there are more big eruptions on the comets surface, the comet is expected to remain at about magnitude 10 as it passes Earth on Nov 14 and reaches perihelion on Dec 2.