Photos of Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas’ anti-tail developing

Science: Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, writer and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates stunning images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory Photo Ambassador and member of The World at Night, and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical “skyscapes” that combine both Earth and the night sky.

This close-up photo of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-Atlas) was taken from the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve in Portugal on October 13, 2024, when the comet was showing brightness and detail as well as a spectacular ‘anti-tail’.

In this photo, it also looks like the comet’s ion tail is also visible along with its prominent dust tail. In addition to the long tails of dust and gases they leave behind, some comets develop ion tails, a second tail composed of charged particles pushed away from the comets by solar radiation and the solar wind. I processed it with my deep sky techniques to recover as much as possible the original colors and details hidden in the dust tails, which are usually washed out due to the blue background light from the Moon and Sun.