Comet hunting 2024

 14 Oct 2024

I went out to see if I could see C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) .

My plan was to leave my house around 6pm and pick up dinner from Foster's Freeze, yum crinkle cut fries! Then drive up behind Big Basin State Park, California's first State Park! Where there is one of the few places in the Santa Cruz Mountains to see Westward unless you go to the coast.

Upon arriving I set up my camera, a point and shoot Fuji, and a chair then I dug into my tucker as the sun set.

Yesterday some pics were taken around 7:10-7:20 so I was up there and ready by 7pm. By this time the moon was also rising.

Venus was the first "star" to come out by the time I just finished eating.

Here I have to say my Fuji was worthless and all these pics are from my phone an i7. With it I tried to get artsy-fartsy.

It wasn't until around 7:25pm that the sun dipped enough for me to see the comet tail in the darkened Western sky. I'm afraid the almost full moon was so bright it really faded the comet out.

I tried eventually it became futile to even see it so I packed up and came home.

I only saw 2 cars the hour and a half I was there.