Comet Tsuchinshan is Coming: How to See the "Comet of the Century"

What Are Comets?

Comets are balls of frozen gases, rocks, and dust that blaze across our sky (unlike asteroids, which are made of rock and metal.)  They are best known for their awesome tail that stretches out into the sky as the comet gets closer to the Sun.

Think of comets as comic snowballs—or, some people jokingly refer to comets as dirty snowballs! They are left over from the formation of stars and planets billions of years ago. Learn more about comets. 

Comet Tsuchinshan: Dazzling or Disappointing?

The incoming comet is officially named “C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.” The first issue is knowing how to say it. Although the comet is spelled Tsuchinshan, you should pronounce it as if it’s “Choo-Cheen-Shahn.”

It’s very possible that Comet Tsuchinshan will become the brightest comet of the century in mid-October, as many claim. However, comets are still unpredictable, so let’s also ground ourselves in a little realism.

There are no bad total solar eclipses. But there are bad comets. In fact, most of them are disappointing. A comet can be too faint to be seen without a telescope. Or it can appear only over the Southern Hemisphere the way comet McNaught did in 2007. But it’s the sheer unpredictability of its eventual brightness that makes comets so frustrating.

The most therapist-worthy celestial object may have been comet Kohoutek. Time magazine featured it on its cover in 1973, along with the four words: Comet of the Century. But it turned out to be utterly invisible from towns and cities and could barely be seen from the darkest rural places. Astronomers shrugged. They’d been through that kind of let-down too many times. Even the most famous of all, Halley’s Comet, was far from spectacular during its once-a-lifetime approach in the autumn of 1985 and the spring of 1986.

Still, serious backyard astronomers and dedicated comet lovers have been treated to a dozen naked-eye comets in the past half-century. 

• There was a bright comet Bennett in 1970, 
• A glorious double-tailed comet West in 1976, 
• The disappointing but nonetheless visible comet Halley in 1986-87. 
• An enormous but dim Comet Hyakataki in 1996. 
• And the best of them all, the magnificent Hale-Bopp in 1997. That comet could be brightly seen by the naked eye for 18 months, beating out a record that had stood since 1811. 
• We also had a series of faint naked-eye comets such as Iras-Iraki-Alcock in 1983 and comet Neowise just two years ago. 
• People in the Southern Hemisphere got to see the amazing sky-spanning comet McNaught In 2007. 

So, comets, like life itself, have brought agonies and ecstasies. As comet expert and author David Levy said in one of his books, “Comets are like cats: they have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”

That’s why we ought to be skeptical. While some are calling the upcoming comet Tsuchinshan a new ‘comet of the century,’ note that this means it may become bright enough to be visible to the naked eye during its passage.

Figure that you’ll see it for sure if you have binoculars and are willing to get to an unblocked viewing spot. But it’s going to be a challenge.

The Best Day to See Comet Tsuchinshan

Since maximum brightness should take place when the comet is just 4 degrees from the Sun, it’s not visible until a few nights later, starting around October 12. Circle October 12 to 16 on your calendar and go outside on the next clear night

How to View Comet Tsuchinshan

The main pain is that this comet will be very, very low in the sky. Evening twilight will still be bright when the comet is visible. So, look when the comet should be brightest—a few degrees above the western horizon after sunset.

If you’d like to go for it, here’s how to view it:

1. Timing: One hour after sunset, look West just over the horizon.
2. Plan a location where nothing blocks the western horizon. We’re talking about a clear view all the way down, as some people have if their home is on a beach or on a cliff overlooking the Pacific.
3. Then, starting October 11, you want to look down low 45 minutes after sunset. If you peer closely, you’ll see the planet Venus shining in that area. Well, the comet is to the right of Venus, with its tail angling almost straight up. 
4. If you don’t see anything there in the twilight, sweep that region with binoculars. 
5. If it’s cloudy or you simply still don’t see it, try again the next few nights because the comet will be a bit higher in the nights to come.
6. If you have trouble seeing it, you’ll probably have much more luck using a camera. Already, this comet is a photographer’s object. It shows up beautifully with a few seconds of exposure. And just like many Northern Lights displays, the photographic view looks far better than the way it appears in person. 

Bottom Line: Comet Tsuchinshan should be visible to the naked eye if you know where to look. It will most certainly be a photographer’s comet! There will certainly be some gorgeous photos of this comet in the news.

And if bad weather or lack of an oceanic-type Western Horizon keeps us from seeing it at all, just remember that a great comet typically comes along every 15 to 20 years on average. Our 21st century is still young. There will be others.