A rare celestial event is lighting up the night sky this month as Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas makes its closest approach to Earth for the first time in roughly 80,000 years.

The comet, designated C/2023 A3, was discovered last year by observatories in China and South Africa and hails from the Oort Cloud, a distant region of icy bodies beyond Pluto.

Visible to the naked eye, Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas appears as a glowing ball with a long tail streaking across the sky. The best time to look is about an hour after sunset. The comet will be visible in the western sky from both the northern and southern hemispheres. After sunset, look toward the west and find the constellation Virgo.

The comet is now prominent in the Northern Hemisphere after wowing stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere.

The moonlight will wash out some of the comet’s tail, but it’s still worth a look after sunset, said NASA’s Bill Cooke.

Comets like Tsuchinshan-Atlas are remnants from the early days of the solar system. As they approach the sun, they heat up and release their iconic streaming tails of gas and dust. While several comets are discovered each year, most either burn up near the sun or remain too distant to see without special equipment.

Over  next few nights, the time to view Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is about 45 minutes after sunset. Find a location with an unobstructed view of the western horizon. The lower the view on the horizon, the longer your opportunity to view the comet as it streaks through the sky.

After the full moon on Oct. 17, the moon’s light will interfere less with comet viewing. The comet’s path will take it higher and higher in the night sky until around Halloween night, when it will start to dim and become more challenging to see with the naked eye.

The Comet C/2023 A3 (ATLAS-Tsuchinshan) is visible in the sky over the Great Salt Lake west of Salt Lake City, Utah just after sunset on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Spenser Heaps)