To Upper West Siders Looking for the Comet: It’s There! Tips on How to See It

By Rob Garber

Clusters of Upper West Siders have lined the banks of the Hudson River and the promenade in Riverside Park on recent evenings gazing hopefully into the western sky as it darkens, but leaving dejectedly having failed to spot Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.

Although described as a “naked eye object,” our bright city lights mean that the comet is pretty much impossible to see with your eyes or even a pair of binoculars and won’t put on the spectacle that many photographs promised — rather like the Northern Lights show we were hoping to see recently. But the comet is there, and it can be seen from the Upper West Side, if the western sky is reasonably clear.

Here are tips on how to see it.

1. Find a viewing spot where you’ve got a clear view of the horizon. By “horizon,” I mean the hills of New Jersey. Although the comet isn’t at horizon level, you need to be able to find Venus for orientation, and Venus is low in the early evening. Try to get to the Hudson so that Manhattan’s lights are behind you. The sweet spot for time is dusk — not right at sunset, but about 45-60 minutes later. On the evenings of October 18-19-20, look around 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. Any later and the bright full moon rising behind you will begin brightening the sky.
2. Although the comet is in the western sky, don’t look for it directly across the river from the Upper West Side. Manhattan doesn’t run truly north-south, so to see something described as “in the west,” direct your search down the river towards Weehawken, not straight across toward North Bergen.
3. Use Venus as the starting point for your search. Venus is by far the brightest celestial object other than the moon. At dusk, Venus is low in the western sky. Look for the brightest object near the horizon that isn’t moving (that would be an airplane heading for Newark) or blinking (a radio antenna or tower of some sort). When you’ve spotted Venus, you need to look a little upriver, and a bit up into the sky. How much up and up? That’s hard to quantify. Maybe the size of your outstretched fist upriver, and one or two fists up into the sky. If you know a little bit about the night sky and can spot Arcturus — the next brightest object in this part of the sky and somewhat higher and further upriver than Venus — draw a line between Arcturus and Venus and scan along the middle of that line but a bit higher in the sky. There’s a good map  of it, HERE.
4. Still don’t see it? Now it’s time for your secret weapon — your cell phone! The solid-state light sensors in a cell phone’s camera are very efficient and can image objects too faint for your eyes. Open your camera, turn the magnification to its highest level, find a railing or something to steady your hand, and slowly scan the patch of sky where you think the comet should be. The key is to be slow and methodical, because even with your phone’s assistance, the comet is dim and small. You’re looking for a very faint streak pointing almost up and down but at a slight angle so the top is further to the left than the bottom. If you think you’ve spotted the comet, you probably won’t be certain — that’s how faint it is. Steady your phone and take a picture. At dusk it will take about 5 seconds for the camera to gather enough light to finish. Surprisingly, you don’t have to be absolutely steady with your hand, but do your best. With my not-new iPhone 13 mini — hardly the Ferrari of cell phones — here’s the un-enhanced, un-Photoshopped result:

By taking several seconds to gather light, the camera produced a much more compelling image than I saw even on the phone’s screen. It’s there! Maybe not the jaw-dropping spectacle of a total solar eclipse, but consider this: the last time this particular celestial visitor came around, Neanderthals walked the Earth.

Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here.