Comet Tschunashin-Atlas might dazzle local stargazers

LUMBERTON — One of the great treats of teaching about the night sky is the occasional apparition of a bright comet, or two.

Hale-Bopp, Neowise and McNaught are three fairly recent examples of comets that have graced our skies in the last 30 years.

If all goes well, there will be another, beginning tonight, and continuing for most of the rest of October.

Disclaimer: Comets are notoriously unpredictable. This one’s no exception, especially given its current transit behind the Sun, and the fact that as far as we’re able to determine, this comet has taken 80,000 years to get into the inner solar system.. A fairly famous example of another great comet that fizzled out was Kahoutek, in 1973.

It graced the morning sky, becoming bright enough to be seen until just before apparent sunrise. Then it went behind the Sun, and broke into lots of little bits, most of which were consumed by the Sun’s great gravity.

So, all of what follows assumes a “safe” transit behind the Sun.

The comet will continue its trek behind the Sun until Oct. 10.Then, it starts to ellipse itself out away from the Sun, coming within 70 million miles of Earth on Oct. 14.

So, how do you find this thing?

Step one : find a clear Southwestern horizon near you. During the first few nights of its apparition in the night sky, it will be slightly left of where the Sun appeared to set.

You can use an object along that horizon to mark where the Sun descended into twilight.

Step two : Go out about 30 minutes after the apparent Sunset, and look for bright Venus in the sky to the left of Sundown. Draw an imaginary line between the Sundown point and Venus. On Oct. 12, the comet will be along that line segment, near the Sundown point.. After Oct. 22, the comet is predicted to dim below what you can expect to see with your unaided eye.

Here’s the best news of all :

There may be another, even brighter comet, on Tschunashin/Atlas’ heels. Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1). As this comet’s orbital elements and brightness predictions are still being refined, we’ll know more about this next visitor to our skies soon.

Yes, I’ll be writing an article about it. It will be what’s called a Sun-grazer, meaning that its orbit takes it within 1.2 million miles of the Sun.

This means that it is a lot less likely we’ll actually see this comet, as it stands a good chance of being consumed and/or destroyed by the Sun’s gravity field. The best nights to see it will include Halloween, assuming a successful passage of the Sun on Oct. 28.

So, what is so special about comets?

First of all, a comet sporting a bright tail behind it relative to the Sun is an awesome sight — and worth looking for.

In the days before we could accurately predict a comet’s orbital elements, comets were strange apparitions that usually portend something bad happening, depending on who’s interpreting the apparition.

A famous example was the appearance of Halley’s comet shortly before the battle of Hastings in 1066. That didn’t end well for English King Harold. William of Normandy won the field, and the crown, on that fateful day.