Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, orange tail and double layer in coma

[Holger Isenberg]

I could look yesterday and today at comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS through a 40x binocular which surprisingly revealed one detail rarely visible in most photos: A clearly distinguishable sharp delimited inner spherical bright glow and the large fuzzy coma extending into the tail. It looked like this photo: https://www.cloudynights.com/gallery/im ... -c2023-a3/

The sharp differentiation between both usually means we see a double layer. The color orange means sodium.

More correct transcription is apparently Tzu Zǐjīnshān, where the last part translates as Purple Mountain, the location of the observatory in Nanjing, and Tzu most likely meaning honorable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Mo ... bservatory