The Rise and Fall of Tsuchinshan

October gifted night sky lovers with a once in a lifetime treat. This of course made up for the many months of perpetual cloudy nights. Comet C/2023 A3, also referred to as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, is currently gracing the night sky just after sunset, and will be seen higher and higher in the sky (from our vantage point) every night until it goes to “outer space”. The comet, which is racing at around 150,000 miles is very bright and is visible to the unaided eye. It is a must see, as it won’t be back for another 80,000 years 😳.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on 22 February 2023 and it was also independently observed a few weeks before in January at the Tsuchinshan Chinese Observatory (see here for more information)

I paid close attention to the movement of this comet as it came into our inner solar system. It was projected to be an impressive comet once it could survive its encounter with the Sun. Well survive it did, and it is more than impressive. I went looking for the “rising”comet around 4:00am on 1 October. It was very bright and it dominated twilight in the moments before sunrise (at least in the east 🙂).

Then I stalked the comet for the next week knowing from my reading that its closest approach (about 80 million kilometers from Earth) would have been on 12 October. I was not able to capture on that night but 13 October presented a clear night sky, perfect for imaging the “falling” comet with the moon still at a manageable phase. The cover photo was taken on this night. The comet was stunning and so bright that even my iPhone 16 pro was able to capture it with great detail (see below).

I tried to capture the comet again on 15 October, but this time I was fighting a 91% waxing moon. The comet was still visible to the naked eyes and I captured lucky shots with the iPhone. I tried a close up shot at 100mm, but the moonlight definitely affected my plans.

There will be more opportunities to capture this comet before it disappears. Stay tuned for more as I explore this beautiful visitor to our solar system. In the meantime, remember to look up and experience an amazing Universe.