Stop!
Is this really it?
I stopped walking, squinting to focus, eyes scanning the area again cautiously. In all these years of looking, the moment of the find has not changed much in character. An uncomfortable mix of uncertainty and optimism, maybe even a subconscious holding of breath in case I disturbed the universe, usually culminating in a moment of relief.
That indeed was it.
Like a faint apparition in the nautical twilight of Boise, Idaho, beyond an empty parking lot next to a tree, hung the unmistakable form of a comet. My first naked eye comet with the ungainly name of C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (more on that later).
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| Comet C/2023 A3 as seen from Boise, Idaho on Oct 14th (handheld, cellphone shot) |
