These are the last days to observe in our skies the “comet of the century” C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. The brightest comet of the last decade in our hemisphere, coming from far away Oort cloud at the edge of the Solar System, it survived the perihelion on September 27th and put on a show at the moment of maximum proximity to the Earth on October 12th, 70 million km from our planet, days in which it reached maximum brightness becoming visible even to the naked eye in particularly dark skies. There are many splendid photographs of this celestial body captured all over the world and also in Italy. On October 17, the passage of the comet was also accompanied by a particularly bright “supermoon”. These days the comet is visible from sunset until around 10pm.
What time and how to see the “comet of the century” live from Italy
Before C/2023 A3 moves away enough to make it invisible even with binoculars or small telescopes, we can still observe it live on YouTube on Monday 21 October from 8.00 pm thanks to the project Virtual Telescope of the Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi. The live broadcast will be possible thanks to the robotic telescope located in Mancianoin the province of Grosseto, which can enjoy one of the best skies in Italy.
Where to observe the passage of comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS: the tracker
If you want to try to see comet C/2023 A3 with your own eyes before observation becomes too difficult, you can look for it in the sky already at sunset, around 6.30 pm. At sunset the comet will be at approx 38° above the horizonabout 30° south of where the Sun sets. It may help to find the planet Venus, which will appear as a bright isolated point of light immersed in the twilight: Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be about 30° above Venus. The comet will gradually descend in a westerly direction over the next few hours until it disappears below the horizon between 10pm and 10.30pm.
Useful tools can be apps like Stellarium or online planetariums like TheSkyLivewhich also provides a trackers to follow the positions of the comet in the sky in real time.
