Comet 3I/ATLAS now visible from Earth with a small telescope

ATLAS is back on the map.

Contrary to claims that 3I/ATLAS is no longer from Earth, space experts claim that the Manhattan-sized comet can now be captured by anyone with basic viewing equipment.

Astronomer Yicheng Zhang snapped an image of the interstellar anomaly on November 1st, uploading his killer shot in a post blowing up on Cometary.org.

“The comet is easily visible with small telescopes now,” Zhang, a postdoctoral fellow who studies small-body astronomy at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, told The Post.

The astronomer explained in the post’s caption that he caught the particular shot using a 152-mm Ritchey–Chrétien reflector (a six-inch telescope with a curved rather than flat focus), adding that 3I/ATLAS’s increased visibility is because it’s “rising early enough in [the] morning twilight.”

ATLAS is visible in the photo as a “slightly fuzzy dot” in the center of a static-y-looking sky background.

Interestingly, this comes after the intergalactic oddity shifted to the opposite side of the Sun in September, getting lost in the solar glare, with experts claiming that it wouldn’t be visible in Earth’s sky until at least later this month.

However, Zhang explained that ATLAS’ so-called invisibility was due to the limitations of the equipment itself rather than the orientation of the cosmic body itself.

“A lot of large telescopes, which typically aren’t constructed with comet science in mind, can’t point very close to the horizon, so can’t observe objects particularly close to the Sun in twilight,” he said. “Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope also have similar limitations to where they can’t point that close to the Sun to avoid damaging their optics/instruments.

To wit, Zhang claimed that he used a Lowell Discovery Telescope on October 31 that was “constructed with comet observations in mind,” and is thereby able to point down to “5 degrees and thus observe much closer to the Sun than most other telescopes of its size.”

He said that now “anyone with a telescope of that size and a clear sky plus a low Eastern horizon (should ideally be less than 5 degrees) would be probably be able to catch it now.”

“[It’s] much easier with a camera, but I expect it can probably be seen visually too with a telescope of that size.”

Michigan State University astronomy professor Darryl Seligman told The Post that ATLAS will be most visible in December when it’s “at its closest approach to Earth.

He added that it’s possible to get it if you can “track it in the sky” with a good “amateur telescope.”

“I’d say wait a few more weeks, and then the best shot is always going to the highest and driest place that you can get to – ideally away from as much light pollution as possible,” Seligman urged.

But where will it be in the sky? The astronomer said the comet’s trajectory should be fairly predictable, claiming that we know “exactly where it’s going to be in the sky at all points in the future.”

“The uncertainties in the orbit and possibilities of nongravitational accelerations (which comets always end up having) are always very small, so they don’t make huge changes for where to point the telescopes at any given night,” said Seligman. He urged skywatchers to go to NASA JPL Horizons Small Body Database you can look at exactly where the object will be in the sky at any date in the next few months.

This contrasts with recent opinions by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who believed that ATLAS is exhibiting a host of atypical behaviors that could indicate that it’s potentially an alien spacecraft.

In a recent paper, the scientist wrote that the object’s non-gravitational acceleration — which was recorded by NASA last week — coupled with the fact that it glowed “bluer than the sun” could indicate the “technological signature of an internal engine.”