Mars comets 2024

reading time: 2 minutes

Now near the bright summit, Pons Brooks undergoes training before moving to perihelion.

12b/ponce brooks

The month before perihelion, in which we will understand whether 12/P is a memorable comet. The “star with hair” will move from Andromeda to Aries. At the beginning of the month we will still find it very high in the sky but very low, so much so that by the end of March it will now be very low on the horizon. Initially, it will appear at its highest at astronomical nightfall and at its lowest just before dawn. As the days pass, it will only be possible to notice it in the evening. It is expected to reach magnitude 6 later this month, and the object will be easily accessible with small binoculars under a gorgeous sky. A beautiful perspective encounter on the 22nd, when the comet will pass about three degrees past the larger M33 galaxy, a moment that should be commemorated in a wide-field image. On the 31st, it will instead track near Hamal, the alpha star of Aries.

C/2021 S3 Panstars

A comet so disappointing that it will not even come close to the sixth power predicted by the light curves some time ago. From the Serpent it will move to Volpetta, “travelling” along a good stretch of the celestial vault. At the beginning of the month, we will be looking for it in the latter part of the night, while as March progresses, it will be possible to notice it even earlier. In the middle of the month, coinciding with the transit to the lowest distance from Earth, it will reach its peak strength, which should be about a very modest tenth of a magnitude.

If you want to follow the development of 12p/Pons-Brooks read:

February comets
January comets
December comets

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