1 week Ago
Readers have shared photos of the “largest and brightest” supermoon of the year, “the comet of the century” Comet A3, and Elon Musk company SpaceX’s Starlink satellites above the town. All three were expected to be visible over the UK last night and the Met Office gave stargazers a heads-up to get out and take a look early yesterday evening (October 18). Chief meteorologist Jason Kelly said: “Pretty much the whole of the UK has a good chance of clear skies this evening.
“Western Scotland will be a bit cloudier, perhaps preventing prolonged views of the moon here, but otherwise cloud amounts will be patchy and should not limit views of the supermoon or comet for prolonged periods of time.” This month’s full moon, called a Hunter’s Moon, is the third of four supermoons in 2024. It meant the Earth’s natural satellite appeared around 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter.
The comet, also known as Tsuchinshan-Atlas, has been expected to be visible from the UK between October 12 and 30. It was only discovered in January last year, but astronomers said it would last have been visible from our planet around 80,000 years ago when Neanderthals were alive. It has been called “the comet of the century” because of how bright and visible it could be, according to the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).
Dr Greg Brown, astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich, said the comet “is visible in the early evening skies from the UK”. He added: “Low on the horizon at sunset, it is best to wait a while for the sky to darken a bit before trying to see it. “Look to the west, just to the left of where the sunset was and, if you are lucky, it should be just about visible to the unaided eye.
” According to website Find Starlink, the view of the chain of satellites from Watford was classed as “bright” for around four minutes at around 7.41pm yesterday - meaning it could be visible to the naked eye. It was recorded over Callowland Recreation Ground at 7.
40pm..
