Space.com writes that Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa on February 22, 2023. Originally believed to be an asteroid, it was actually photographed six weeks earlier by the Purple Mountain Observatory (Tsuchinshan) in the east of Nanjing, China, confirming its identity as a comet.
NASA astronomer Bill Cooke suggests choosing a dark vantage point just after full nightfall and looking to the southwest, roughly 10° above the horizon. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS should be visible between the constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpio.
This month, Earth has two moons and is welcoming a bright comet, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which is set to zip by on October 12, passing 44 million miles away.
Although Comet C/2023 A3 will be bright enough to potentially see with the naked eye, visibility is not guaranteed as it originates from the Oort cloud.
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