Comet seen and drawn from coastal Mayo

A woman in Mayo has drawn a comet that was seen in the earth’s sky for the first time in 80,000 years.

Deirdre Kelleghan drew two different pieces of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS after it could be seen from Fahy on the coast near Killadoon.

Discovered in February by two observatories- one in China and the other in South Africa, the comet, which has been named after both observatories, has come from the Oort Cloud way outside our solar system. It has travelled into our solar system and gone around the sun.

One of Ms Kelleghan’s drawings was done with the naked eye, and the other is through her 15X70 binoculars.

_{Deirdre Kelleghan’s drawing of Comet C2023 A3 Tsuchinshan ATLAS in binoculars from Fahy near Killadoon}

The comet was described by Earth Sky as the ‘brightest in 27 years’, the brightest since Hale-Bopp in 1997.

Deirdre Kelleghan is an artist, astronomer and educator.

On October 16, she drove down to Fahy to ‘take a chance on the comet making an appearance’. She saw nothing but black clouds and a few gaps, however using my binoculars, she then saw the head of the comet in fleeting moments. 

In preparation for success, she drew in the towers of clouds and waited and at 8.20pm, it was above one of these columns, visible to the naked eye. 

She explained: “The head was distinctive, and the tail was visible but faint. When the moon behind me went into a black cloud, I could see it well enough to place it in my naked eye drawing. The Atlantic added its crashing waves to the scenario.

“Then, I used my 15X70 binoculars on a tripod to draw it in a prepared circle. The comet's tail exceeded my line, more than ten degrees long and fainter away from the head. The material in the coma close to the head had a yellow tint. Unfortunately, I could not see the anti-tail, which I would have loved to include in the drawing. The ion tail was faint due to the almost full Hunter's moon,” he added. 

The second drawing was at 8.33pm local time, with both being pastels on black paper. 

“To me, the comet looked very sleek and had the appearance of its speed (69 kilometres per second). “To say I was delighted to see it is an understatement, I was so, so, so happy. Both drawings were done at Fahy near Killadoon. I was using soft pastels and a white gel pen on high-quality paper,” she concluded.