Portuguese photographer Miguel Claro didn’t have time to focus on the ancient standing stones that commemorate unknown deities. He had a date with a much older celestial body racing through space. It was a race against time.
He drove through a region in the eastern part of Portugal – a true time capsule. Once considered a strategic town, with stone walls protecting the military and sentinels watching over enemies from high towers, the beautiful Portuguese village of Monsaraz still retains its medieval appearance. Today, it is more known for its cozy bed and breakfast accommodations.
Miguel had no time for anything else. Ignoring the surrounding historical landmarks and giant stones, he was focused on chasing a comet named A3 Atlas, which was nearing its perihelion, glowing like a matchstick in the sky with a fancy anti-tail. The perihelion is the closest point of a comet’s orbit to the sun, where it emits a brilliant glow. The anti-tail is a gorgeous filament shooting out from the comet’s tail due to its proximity to the sun.
The weather had been terrible all week, but in the last days of September, the countryside finally cleared up. He and his wife Polonia spent the entire night driving in search of the comet. Just before sunrise, they parked and saw it with their naked eyes. In the pink twilight sky, to the east, the faint glow of A3 Atlas appeared on the horizon, prompting them to set up their photography gear.
They had been preparing for this for a year since the comet was first discovered in January 2023, long before they heard about it. It was first spotted by an observatory in China, flying toward our solar system from afar. Mathematical calculations indicated that the comet takes 80,000 years to complete one orbit around the sun.
The calculations also determined when and where on Earth observers like Miguel and Polonia could see it, with its spectacular appearance rivaling the recent wonder of the Neowise comet. 47-year-old Miguel is the official astrophotographer of the Alqueva Dark Sky Reserve in Portugal. He had considered all of this. They had been scouting for shooting locations weeks in advance. Now, all those plans were about to pay off.
“It was a very beautiful twilight sky,” Miguel told The Epoch Times, “The comet crossed the eastern part of the sky. It was very difficult to find the comet in that area, due to the twilight. At first, the comet wasn’t so bright, but rather very dim. This dimness was natural to the naked eye.”
Their advanced equipment allowed them to capture amazing details of the comet. Alongside high-powered lenses and multiple tripods, they set up a star tracker to capture clear points of light in the rotating night sky. These individual samples would be stacked together to form a coherent whole.
“Through the viewfinder of the camera, it was a bright, distinct object. It was amazing to see, the conditions were just perfect on that particular night,” Miguel said, “The light was just incredible.”
On that early morning in late September, they won the race against time. But there was more to come.
As the comet moved, A3 Atlas made a loop around the sun, reappearing on its outbound segment. Two weeks after the lucky night in late September, on October 13, Miguel captured A3 Atlas again. This time, the camera’s digital enhancement helped him capture the blue hues caused by scattered moonlight in the comet’s tail.
With ample time, Miguel found the most appropriate position and took many photos. He pondered on some “mysteries” of the comet. He explained that as the comet crosses the orbital plane of Earth, a magnificent anti-tail appears.
Gravity from the sun distorts it, dramatically pulling material out of its dusty tail.
It is a mystery. What are comets, and why do they behave this way?
“Essentially, comets are like dirty ice balls,” he said, “The heat from the sun starts evaporating some of it, and then it starts to have a tail because as it moves toward the sun, it begins reflecting sunlight.”
Where do they come from?
It is believed that the A3 Atlas comet originates from the Oort cloud, a massive planetary ring far beyond the edges of the solar system.
Now, as the comet flies back into deep space, Earth has been left far behind. Miguel is already considering his next date with this ancient space object.
He chuckled, “It will be back in 80,000 years.”