October Aurora and Comet 3A 10/10-15/24
The Turlock area was graced with two amazing celestial events within the span of a week. The first was another very strong aurora (a K8 on the Planetary K-Index) that was just slightly weaker than the May 10th event that clocked-in at a K9. We drove out to Snelling to find dark skies and weren't dissapointed! It was faintly visible to the unaided eye and looked great off the camera.
The second event was a very long-lived showing of Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, also known as "A3". The Oort cloud visitor was discovered in 2023 and put on a great show for several nights. We went to the edge of town where the canal and Verduga road intersected to get a clear view from town.
October Aurora and Comet 3A