The rare comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has captivated Hong Kong. Photo: Eugene LeeHong Kong residents have been captivated by the recent appearance of the comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, a celestial spectacle described as a “once-in-80,000-years” event.
Residents took to social media to report sightings from Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan, Cyberport and Tsim Sha Tsui.
“I managed to capture it with my smaller-than-palm camera at about 6.50pm on October 13,” Tak Shing Au wrote in a reply to a Facebook post by the Hong Kong Space Museum. “It was the first time I captured a comet. So happy.”
Fellow Facebook user Kam Hung said he felt “blessed” to be able to see the comet.
“So grateful today that I could leave early after work and join the recent comet fever,” he said.
“I left home before sunrise for days, at last I could see it,” user Fallen Chan replied to a social media post by the Hong Kong Observatory, attaching a photo he took in the comment.
But some mistook contrails, clouds that form when water freezes around small particles in aircraft exhaust, for signs of the comet’s passing.
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Nasa also shared details on the comet’s passage, noting: “[It] made its closest transit past the Sun on September 27 and was expected to come within around 70 million km (44 million miles) of Earth on October 12.
“The comet was visible primarily to those in the southern hemisphere and the tropics until about October 8. Viewers in the northern hemisphere will get more opportunities to catch a glimpse in subsequent days.”
The comet was first discovered in images taken in January last year, by the Chinese observatory Tsuchinshan, meaning Purple Mountain.
Its orbit period could reach 61,751 years, researchers from the facility had told mainland Chinese news agency Xinhua.
A month after its discovery, an ATLAS automated telescope in South Africa took independent images of the object.
Nasa, which funds ATLAS, called the observation a “once-in-80,000-years sight”.
The Hong Kong Observatory wrote on Facebook that while comets had trails, they were made up of matter such as ice and dust, and should not be labelled as shooting stars.
Earlier this week, the comet was also photographed by residents in Shenzhen and Zhuhai.