Our resident astronomer, Chris Higgins, has been out on his bike again and reports what he saw last night:-

Following the glorious Auroral display last week, another bike ride last night (Thursday) brought clear skies and a first hand view of the much publicised Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Comets are named after their discoverers and this example was simultaneously seen by an observatory in China and by the space probe ATLAS which is an asteroid early warning defence.

Ignoring the media hype referring to ‘Comet of a Lifetime’ it was visible but not as bright as NEOWISE which graced our skies in lockdown. The Comet approached the Sun on a highly eccentric orbital path at the end of September and brightened considerably.

It is now on its way out of the Solar System unlikely to be witnessed again. If you have binoculars you can view it low down in the South Western sky around 8 p.m. over the next few days.