Denis,

Thanks. That is a very interesting article from John Bortle. I've
constructed a 1m long baffle to go in front of my telescope to see if I
can get the comet although the weather has been non-cooperative the last
few days when I've been able to get out. I did get Mercury last weekend
at mag -1.3 only 3.7 deg from the Sun. I'm restricting my efforts to
imaging so the worse that can happen is that I fry a camera.

Trying to observe anything this close to the Sun visually is inherently
very dangerous and should only be attempted if you really know what you
are doing.

In addition to SOHO, the comet is also visible in the STEREO-A HI which
has a 20x20 deg FoV. STEREO-A is currently 26 degrees ahead of the Earth
along the ecliptic so it is seeing the comet from a different viewpoint
to us (and SOHO). The STEREO images (one attached from Oct 6 at 23:38)
show a lot of detail in the dust tail.

We should get our first chance to see it in the evening sky in a few
days. I can't wait!

Nick.

On 08/10/2024 17:46, buczynski8166 at btinternet.com (via baa-comet
list) wrote:
> Observations of C/2023A3 in the daylight sky very close to the Sun are
> being discussed in various astronomical posts. Should you be tempted to
> have a go then it is worth while considering the precautions  and
> techniques that would be wise to adopt. Observations of this type are
> and have been sucessful. One account which gives good advice given by a
> very experienced comet observer John Bortle can be read in a past issue
> of the International Comet Quarterly.
> http://www.icq.eps.harvard.edu/ICQ053.pdf
>
> Of course to be totally safe and enjoy a front seat view you could just
> watch the passage of C/2023A3 across the field of the SOHO LASCO C3
> instrument during the few days.
> https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c3/512/
>
> Denis Buczynski
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