WORDEN — Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS has been visible to the naked eye across the United States since the weekend. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for Montanans like Worden resident Jennifer Bagley, who was able to capture photographs of the comet in her backyard.
As a professional photographer, Bagley wasn't going to miss her shot as the comet passed overhead.
"It comes around every 80,000 years so it's the only time you're going to be able to see it," said Bagley at her home in Worden Monday. "I looked at my husband and I was like, "Oh, the comet's out. I need to go see it."
Despite being 44 million miles away, Bagley was able to take this photo of the comet.
“I was super excited to see it...a lot of people didn't even know that it was happening and so most people are like, "Oh, how did you catch that?" I'm like, "Well, it's there." You just gotta go out and look at the sky," Bagley said. "You're in awe."
She wasn't the only one in Worden with a bright idea.
"I looked for maybe, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes and didn't see anything. And finally, it got dark enough and I started to see a little bit of it. And the longer I waited, then it finally showed up," said Huntley Project science teacher Rick Dees.
Dees took photos of the comet near Roundup Sunday night.
"I've only seen maybe three of these things. And so it's not every day you get to see one of these," Dees said. "That's pretty exciting stuff, so it's a good time to be a science teacher.
"It's from the Oort cloud, which makes it what we call a long period comet. Those things are not like Halley's comet, where they're going to revisit within human lifetimes," said MSU Billings senior lecturer Steven Wiles.
Wiles said the last people who probably saw the comet were the Neanderthals.
"You think to yourself, you know, if I was living a thousand years ago or ten thousand years ago, I'm looking at that. I'd be terrified. But today I know what it is," joked Wiles.
It's a rare sight but it's one that should be visible for the rest of the week.
"If you want to see the head of the comet, then even a pair of binoculars is probably going to give you a pretty darn good view. And you're going to be wanting to look west. This Saturday will probably be like, hold your arm out a couple of fists above where the sun sets," Wiles said.
"If you have five seconds, five minutes or whatever to go look at it, go do it. Get a picture. Take a picture," said Bagley.
