Dark, clear skies over Michigan provide excellent viewing of rare comet

HUDSON TWP. — This has been a really good year for astronomical phenomena.

In April, we had a total solar eclipse visible from just south and east of Lenawee County. In May and again a couple of weeks ago, we had some spectacular aurora. And for the past week or so, we've been able to see a comet that hasn't been seen by people for about 80,000 years.

Ever since I was about 13 years old, I've had a fascination with comets.

It started with Halley's Comet, which made its most recent visit to the inner solar system in 1986. While it's perhaps the most famous comet due to astronomer Edmund Halley being able to predict its return visit in 1758, it wasn't really visible to us in Michigan on its visit in 1986. In 1997, we were able to see Comet Hale-Bopp. In the summer of 2020, when things were still mostly shut down in the beginning months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we could go outside and try to see Comet NEOWISE. It wasn't as bright as Hale-Bopp, but if you knew where to look, especially with binoculars in a dark area away from outdoor lights, it was visible.

So when I heard about Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS and how it was supposed to be visible in the Northern Hemisphere and as bright as some stars, I knew I would be casting my gaze upon the western horizon to try to see it.

The comet was discovered in 2023 by astronomers at China's Purple Mountain Observatory (tsuchinshan means "purple mountain") and South Africa's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), according to Sky & Telescope magazine, which is a subsidiary of the American Astronomical Society. It was closest to Earth on Oct. 12 at 44 million miles as it headed back to the outer solar system.

It was cloudy here last week, of course, when Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was first supposed to be visible, so I was only able to see images of it posted online by photographers in places with clear skies, but those images provided an idea of what to look for when the skies cleared here. Last Wednesday, a high-pressure system began to move in and the skies finally were clear enough about an hour after sunset. Using a star-mapping app, I was able to figure out where to look, and there, through a break in the clouds and a gap in some trees, was a fuzzy streak. Looking through my binoculars and then through my camera with a long lens attached, I could see the comet with its bright head and long, whispy tail.

That was from the yard of my house in the northwest corner of Tecumseh where I have streetlights plus lights around my neighbor's homes to contend with. If I could see it there, what might it look like from a really dark location?

On Thursday, I headed out to Lake Hudson Recreation Area and its dark sky preserve. There were three or four other people there who had the same idea, including one couple who came from Ann Arbor and said they had seen it the night before from western Wayne County. Unfortunately, the high clouds that made for a beautiful sunset also obscured the comet. I packed up my tripod and camera gear in anticipation of returning Friday night.

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Once again on Friday, at about 7:30 p.m., there was a small group of stargazers looking to the west across the lake to try to use the planet Venus and the star Arcturus to locate the comet. Each evening, the comet appears a little higher and a little more to the south but also a little more dim as it returns to the Oort Cloud at the outer edge of the solar system. The full moon, which was rising in the east, also washed out some of the comet's brightness. By tonight, it'll be almost too dark to see with the naked eye and soon it won't be visible at all, not to be seen again, if at all, for about 80,000 years.

But on Friday, I spotted that fuzzy streak I saw on Wednesday. I had a hard time focusing on it with my binoculars, but once I got my camera set up, I was able to find it, and, wow! It was just like in the pictures I saw online. Some of the photos online were able to capture an anti-tail of ions pointing down and away from the comet's icy nucleus, but with my camera, even when set to high ISO settings all I could see was the main tail, stretching up and to the left a little. Still, it's the best view of a comet I've seen.

Something to keep in mind when looking at comets is that they don't streak across the sky like a meteor. They just hang there, like the stars and planets, and "move" with the rotation of the Earth.

One of the interesting things about photography at night is the longer exposures needed to capture stars can make the sky look brighter than it was and even the landscape can seem like it's in daylight. When I switched to a wider lens to capture the comet with the lake and the shoreline in view, it almost looked like the trees, some of which were in their autumn colors, were well lit, thanks in part to the moonlight. But if I set the exposure to make the sky and landscape darker, the comet became less visible. That was more like it really looked in person, but that kind of defeats the purpose of showing the comet on Facebook or in a news article.

So, while the landscape photo with this article looks like it was taken at dusk, it was actually taken a little after 9 p.m. with a 3-second exposure.

It's even possible to photograph this comet with a smartphone by using the night mode or long exposure setting. You just have to use a tripod or hold very still as it takes the shot.

If you miss this comet, there's a chance another, brighter comet will appear later this month. Comet ATLAS, a sungrazing comet, is on its way toward the sun. It was just discovered in September. These types of comets, according to Sky & Telescope, have the potential to become bright enough to be seen during the day but often break apart as they approach the sun. We'll just have to wait and see what will happen with this one.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS visible from Lenawee County in Michigan