Spend the weekend on the new paper. I am so excited about it that I'm barely able to not spread its contents around until March 2026. It will be a great example that comet orbits in catalogues mustn't be correct and that there are still discoveries possible in historical treatises. ☄️🔭

With this result #cop30 was a waste of resources.

Enjoy a time-cleansing carrot-radish thread.

My favorite piece of content today.

The Witkoff/Dmitriev package is designed to serve three objectives: • give a quick win to Trump and Putin who for different reasons are both in need of some good news; • shift responsibility for failure and all other longer-term consequences squarely to Europe; • maximize US and RUS economic gain. 🙏

Made it five out of six. -6° C this morning. C/2025 T1 ✅ 8.8 mag C/2025 R2 ✅ 10.2 mag 240P ✅ 12.2 mag 24P ❌ C/2025 K1 ✅ 10.1 mag 3I ✅ 9.5 mag 240P/NEAT is my 189th visual comet. C/2025 R2 is extremely diffuse and will be soon gone for me. ☄️🔭

Sacrificing a whole country by dealing with the devil just to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Did I understand this correctly?

Clear and frosty night ahead. Just printed out finder and comparison charts for six comets. Three this evening, three in the morning. Let's see how many I can catch. Need to wrap myself really well, though. ☄️🔭

It’s almost as if America’s oligarchs think democracy poses a major threat to their power and hence needs to be acquired like one buys a business competitor, so as to neutralize them.

👀 🐈

Extremely upset that a throw-away XKCD joke somehow became the organizing principle for the Internet.

Uh oh... We've discovered another tract on the comet which is the topic of the current paper I'm working on. And it contains an additional position. And this position confirms my new orbit! Yes! And, just to tease you, this orbit is very special.... 🔭☄️

The at least three fragments of comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) imaged by Michael Jäger on Nov 18, 2025, at 3:17 UT, 42x7 sec, f= 1200 mm. ☄️🔭

Okay, paper deadline mid-February. Should be doable if I can keep the momentum. Hate it and love it at the same time. Can't wait to see it published. Let's go. Scholar Sharpening His Quill Gerrit Dou (Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden) ☄️🔭

Woke up w/o alarm at 4:30 to clear skies. Finder & comparison charts were already prepared. #CometObs C/2025 K1 (ATLAS): 9.5 mag, 1.5', DC7, 0.25° tail in PA290°, elongated coma, miniature comet 3I/ATLAS: 9.7 mag, 3.5', DC5, no aliens 3I is my 188th visual comet. 🔭☄️

365 days & 365 posted comets later I will end the #bskycometography . It was fun, a bit of work & sometimes a challenge to post it daily. I won't stop completely, but won't post daily ☄️ anymore. Probably I'll pick out some special ones, maybe weekly, let's see. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. ☄️🔭

#bskycometography no. 365 C/1989 W1 (Aarseth-Brewington) 1989 Nov 16: Discovered by K. B. Aarseth (Norway) and H. J. Brewington (USA) at 8.5 mag. Prediscovery images of Sep 1. The comet passed perihelion on Dec 27 and reached 3 mag. It was last finally seen on 1990 Jan 31. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

Scientists in error: Nebra sky disc is in reality a pizza recipe. ☄️🔭

This made me smile and happy.

The feeling when finding an old book with comet observations which proves that a comet orbit in the catalogues is wrong! Priceless! Just transcribed the Latin text & it's the final proof that we have to rewrite the history of this comet. It helps to have so many digitized historic tracts online. ☄️🔭

#bskycometography no. 364 C/1890 V1 (Zona) 1890 Nov 15: Discovered by T. Zona (Italy) at 8 mag. The comet was well past perihelion (Aug 7 at 2.05 au) and did not become brighter. The comet was last detected on 1891 Jan 13. (No, the image does not show Rasputin...) ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

Congratulations! 😉 @pbernardinelli.com 🔭☄️

#bskycometography no. 363 C/1984 V1 (Levy-Rudenko) 1984 Nov 14: Discovered by D. H. Levy (USA) and M. Rudenko (USA) one day later at 9.5 mag. Prediscovery on Nov 13 by Mori (Japan). The comet reached 8 mag around perihelion (Dec 14 at 0.92 au) and was last seen on 1985 May 24. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

#bskycometography no. 362 C/1947 V1 (Honda) 1947 Nov 13: Discovered by M. Honda (Japan) at 9 mag shortly prior passing perihelion on Nov 17 at 0.75 au. The comet was moving quickly into southern skies and was last seen on Dec 19. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

By the way, if you are curious, Gemini Observatory and Shadow the Scientist are teaming up to present a livestream of the observation of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on November 25th. Feel free to sign up and watch the observations take place in real time. ucsc.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

It's decided: We'll open the can. 😉☄️🔭

#bskycometography no. 361 C/1974 V1 (van den Bergh) 1974 Nov 12: Discovered by S. van den Bergh (USA) at 17 mag. Perihelion occurred already on Aug 7.77 at 6.02 au. The comet did not become brighter and was last detected on 1976 Dec 26. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

Identified another bogus orbit for a 17th century comet. The original author did not critically analyse his sources and jumped to wrong conclusions. Enough material for a paper dealing with it. But do i really want to open a new can of worms? 🔭☄️

#bskycometography no. 360 C/1906 V1 (Thiele) 1906 Nov 11: Discovered by H. Thiele (Denmark) visually at 8.5 mag. Perihelion occurred on Nov 21 at 1.21 au with the comet being ~7 mag. Perigee on Nov 28 at 0.63 au. The comet was last detected on 1907 Jan 23. Period ~600 years. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

#bskycometography no. 359 C/1857 V1 (Donati-van Arsdale) 1857 Nov 10: Discovered by G. B. Donati (Italy) and R. van Arsdale (USA) at 9 mag two days prior perigee at 0.65 au. Perihelion on Nov 19 at 1.01 au. The comet did not become brighter and was last detected on Dec 19. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

"So offt Du sihst ein Strobelstern/ Gedenck die Straff sey ja nicht fern." "Every time you see a hairy star/ remind yourself that punishment's not far." J. Herrenschmidt, 1619, Virga Vigilans/ Ein Einfältiger/ doch Christlicher/ und Geistlicher Discurs, von jetzigem/ am Himmel stehenden Cometen ☄️🔭

#bskycometography no. 358 C/2013 V4 (Catalina) 2013 Nov 9: Discovered by the Catalina Survey (USA) at 17.5 mag. Prediscovery images of Oct 23 (PANSTARRS) & 31 (Catalina). The comet reached 13-14 mag around perihelion (2015 Oct 6 at 5.17 au). It was last detected on 2018 Aug 6. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

"So offt Du sihst ein Strobelstern/ Gedenck die Straff sey ja nicht fern." "Every time you see a hairy star/ remind yourself that punishment's not far." J. Herrenschmidt, 1619, Virga Vigilans/ Ein Einfältiger/ doch Christlicher/ und Geistlicher Discurs, von jetzigem/ am Himmel stehenden Cometen ☄️🔭

Educate people what _real_ socialism means. Educate in general. Education is everything.

#bskycometography no. 357 C/1956 R1 (Arend-Roland) 1956 Nov 8: Discovered by S. J. V. Arend & G. Roland (Belgium) at 10 mag. Predisc of Nov 7 from Japan. The comet reached 1 mag around perihelion (1957 Apr 8 at 0.32 au). Max tail 30° and 15° sunward tail! Last seen on Apr 11. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

Separately to my other reply, your post reminded me of a 1970s cartoon that I just managed to find online

Spent the last six hours with translations from Latin of mentions of medieval comets in chronicles and annals for the revision of Cometography 1. As the weather is awful with fog and rain this was the best thing to do. Next session tomorrow. ☄️🔭

#bskycometography no. 356 C/2018 V1 (Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto) 2018 Nov 7: Disc by D. E. Machholz (visual), S. Fujikawa & M. Iwamoto (Japan) at 10 mag. It's the last visual comet discovery! Perihelion on Dec 3 at 0.39 au w/ 7-8 mag. Last seen on Dec 17, possibly disintegrated. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

#bskycometography no. 355 17P/1892 V1 (Holmes) 1892 Nov 6: Disc by E. Holmes (England) at 4 mag while in outburst five months after perihelion (Jun 13 at 2.14 au)! The comet faded slowly while becoming larger and diffuse. 2nd outburst on 1893 Jan 16. P=6.90 y, recovery in 1899. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

#bskycometography no. 354 32P/1926 V1 (Comas Sola) 1926 Nov 5: Discovered by J. Comas Solá (Spain) at 12 mag. Prediscovery just a few hours earlier by Neujmin (Ukraine). The comet reached about 10-11 mag and passed perihelion on 1927 Mar 22 at 1.77 au. P=8.52 y, recovery in 1935. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

Random, spontaneous Maynard James Keenan appreciation post. #tool #apc #puscifer

C/2025 R2 (SWAN) has fragmented. 🔭☄️

I spotted this on Mastodon and I find it horrible, not least for the speed with which this has happened.

#bskycometography no. 353 161P/1983 V1 (Hartley-IRAS) 1983 Nov 4: Disc by M. Hartley (Australia) & on Nov 10 by the IRAS satellite at 15 mag. The comet passed perihelion on 1984 Jan 8 at 1.28 au at 10 mag. After outburst in Feb 7.5 mag! Last seen June 4. P=21.4 y, recovery in 2005. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

#bskycometography no. 352 C/1977 V1 (Tsuchinshan) 1977 Nov 3: Discovered by Y. C. Chang and colleagues at Purple Mountain Obs (China) at 13.5 mag. The comet was past perihelion (Jul 24 at 3.60 au). The comet did not become brighter and was last seen on 1978 Nov 1. ☄️🔭 #CometWatch

Last #CometObs before the moon break. Again, the two ATLAS comets. C/2025 K1: 10.0 mag, DC5-6, Dia 1.3', 3' tail in PA 300°, a real miniature comet with a short tail! Amazing! C/2025 T1: 10.3 mag, DC3, Dia 4'. 🔭☄️