Look up to the sky just after the sun sets, and you may see something that won’t be visible for another 80,000 years.
Photographers, astronomy enthusiasts and anyone who wants a glimpse at something special have had their eyes and lenses searching the sky to witness the passing of comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas that is close enough to Earth – an estimated 44 million miles away – to see with the naked eye.
The space rock made its closest pass by Earth on Saturday and will be visible through the end of October.
Nature photographer Pam Kinsman Haselton, who lives near Lake Placid in New York, was in town this week to celebrate a reunion at Dana Hills High School.
She typically spends her days climbing mountains to capture sunsets or out walking the lake at sunrise.
So when she heard of the comet that might make an appearance, she couldn’t help but take her camera out to try and document the moment, meeting up with fellow photographer Tony Prince, also a mentor through the years.
They set up to shoot at sunset on Sunday, Oct. 14, but the comet was a no-show.
She had almost lost hope, when she heard friends shouting out the next night, Oct. 15, “come quick!”
And there it was, revealed just at sunset as the fog lifted, totally visible as it shot downward toward the ocean at Poche Beach in Dana Point, the colorful sunset framing the comet.
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“It was just a stroke of luck,” she said. “The sky opened up briefly.”
Words are hard to describe the moment, she said.
“It was pure joy and elation of what we were seeing,” she said. “We knew it was so rare. It’s probably something we’ll never again. We were all jumping up and down screaming. It was perfect.”
Prince was able to capture the comet on film on Oct. 15 from Ortega Highway, where light pollution was at a minimum. Others have been flocking to Griffith Park Observatory and other places with high-power telescopes to soak in the rare sight.
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According to NASA, comets are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed of dust, rock, and ice. They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they orbit closer to the sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet.
This material forms a tail that stretches millions of miles.
Some comets do not survive close encounters with the sun. If they get too close, radiation and gravitational forces may disintegrate them.
In 2023, a green comet that last visited Earth 50,000 years ago zoomed by the planet again. Other notable flybys included Neowise in 2020, and Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake in the 1990s, according to the Associated Press.
This latest comet, Tsuchinshan-Atlas, was discovered last year and is named for the observatories in China and South Africa that first saw it.
According to AP, the best time to spot it is about an hour after sunset on a clear night, looking west.
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