Comet 31/ATLAS visible from Earth once again — and astronomers are thrilled. Contrary to recent claims that the Manhattan-sized interstellar comet was no longer observable, experts confirm that anyone with a modest telescope can now spot the object in the early morning sky.
Astronomer Qicheng Zhang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, recently captured a striking image of the comet on November 1, which he shared on Cometary.org. “The comet is easily visible with small telescopes now,” Zhang told The Post.
Comet 31/ATLAS Visible: Science Behind the Sighting
Zhang explained that he used a 152-mm Ritchey–Chrétien reflector telescope — a six-inch telescope with a curved focus — to capture the shot. He noted that Comet 31/ATLAS’s visibility has improved because it is now “rising early enough in [the] morning twilight.”
In Zhang’s image, ATLAS appears as a “slightly fuzzy dot” against a static-filled background. The comet had been obscured since September, when it shifted to the far side of the Sun, making it nearly impossible to view.
