Sky-gazers in Hong Kong may get the chance to see a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event, as a comet with a thousands-years-old orbital period is currently passing by Earth. The Hong Kong Observatory says that Tsuchinshan-ATLAS — also called C/2023 A3 — was spotted last week, thanks to a picture the meteorological body received from an eagle-eyed photographer in the city named Chung Ming Lee.
Tsuchinshan-ATLAS passes by earth every 60,000-80,000 years, and was discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory (Tsuchinshan) in Mainland China in January 2023, after which the ATLAS automated telescope in South Africa photographed independent images of the comet. In the image, the comet appears as a long black streak, as the sun was low in the sky when the image was captured.
At present, the heavenly object will appear in the eastern sky at around dawn, and will then be visible in the western sky at around dusk from the middle of this month. So far, it has been spotted over Tsim Sha and Yuen Long. While it cannot be viewed with the naked eye, it can be captured on film with long-exposure photography.
The last time a rare comet was spotted over Hong Kong was in 2021, when comet Leonard C/2021 A1 was the year’s brightest such celestial body. It was most visible with binoculars in mid-December, and appeared like a blurry star to the naked eye.
Header image credits: Hong Kong Observatory
