SAN ANTONIO – Astronomy lovers, rejoice! A comet will be visible over San Antonio from October 11 through 18 at dusk.
KEY POINTS:
- 40 minutes after sunset
- Look west, just above horizon
- Find Venus (really bright star) and look a little to the right
- Binoculars help
- Only seen for a short time at dusk
- Best viewing next week (10/14-10/18)
The first glimpse will be Friday (10/11) evening, but it’ll be low on the horizon, so it may be difficult to see. However, it will progressively get higher in the sky every evening with the best viewing next week.
It’ll only be visible for a short time each evening at dusk (about 40 minutes after sunset), so the window of opportunity should be roughly 7:40pm-8:00pm. Ideally, find an open area away from city lights, look toward western horizon, find Venus (bright star), look a little right of Venus, and the comet should look like a hazy star with a small tail.
For the most precision, first spot Venus, then extend your left arm out in front of you with a closed fist. The comet should be two and a half fist lengths to the right of Venus.
Once spotted, binoculars will help you see it better (unlike the solar eclipse, this is SAFE to view)!
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which was discovered independently by two observation teams last year. One team was at China’s Purple Mountain Observatory and the other as South Africa’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). It’s basically a big chunk of dirty ice whizzing through space and coming within 44 million miles of earth. The sun essentially evaporates the ice causing a haze of dust and gases, which is visible to us because of the low sun angle at twilight relative to the location of the comet.