Catch a glimpse of a rare comet in the western skies over the prairies

Saskatchewan residents have just a few more days to catch a rare glimpse of a comet visible to the naked eye, streaking across the western skies at dusk.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS came from what’s known as the Oort Cloud, well beyond Pluto. After making its closest approach about 71 million kilometres from Earth, it won't return for another 80,000 years — assuming it survives the trip.

Several comets are discovered every year, but many burn up near the sun or linger too far away to be visible without special equipment, according to Larry Denneau, a lead researcher with the Atlas telescope that helped discover the comet.

Lynn Blair, who lives in the hamlet of Furdale just outside Saskatoon, says she set out to go see the comet on Sunday night in part to reconnect with memories of her late father.

“My dad, back in the day, used to write down the day’s weather, temperature; everything,” she told CTV News on Monday.

“We’d take the boat out at night and go watch the stars.”

Blair says her husband is “very much a stargazer,” so the two of them took a drive into a farmer’s field near Asquith at sundown yesterday and waited to see Tsuchinshan-Atlas for themselves. As darkness settled over the prairie — there it was.

After taking quite a few pictures of the bare evening sky, Blair managed to capture a spectacular photo of the long-tailed comet with her iPhone.

“It was just happenstance,” she said.

A viewer shared this photo of comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS taken on Sunday evening. (Courtesy: Lynn Blair)

Why do comets have tails?

“Comets are dirty snowballs,” says Ron Waldron, a Saskatoon-based member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

“When they get close to the sun, they sublimate, so the ice on the comet goes directly from ice to gas as the pressure from the sunlight pushes the tail out as it’s rounding the sun, so that’s why it has a tail.”

Waldron says the tail on Tsuchinshan-Atlas — also dubbed C/2023 A3 — is one million kilometres long.

Before it made its trip around the sun, it was visible in the southern hemisphere.

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Anyone who wants to see the comet without a telescope should look soon, because it will become fainter every night, as it appears to rise higher in the night sky.

“It’s going to get dimmer every night,” said Waldron.

To see the comet, find an unobstructed view of the western horizon and watch just after dusk, around 7:30 p.m., ideally in a spot with minimal light pollution.

While comets are a regular occurrence in the night sky, they’re rarely visible to the naked eye, Waldron says.

The last time a comet passed over the earth that was visible without a telescope was in August, 2020, he says.

Coming on the heels of a week of vivid displays of aurora borealis, the northern lights, Waldron agrees it’s a great year to be a skywatcher — and he says we’re in for a winter of many more aurora shows.

He says the aurora will keep getting brighter right through next year. The sun is on an 11-year solar cycle that’s expected to peak next year, producing massive solar storms that later create the aurora in our skies.

For Blair, looking up at the stars serves to remind her that she is blessed.

"I hope people continue to look up at the sky. It gives you peace."

-With Associated Press files from Adithi Ramakrishnan 

Travis Leite shared this image of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS taken from the RM of Battle River, Sask. on Oct. 13, 2024. (Courtesy: Travis Leite)