Comet A3: Where to see it in last chance for 80000 years

Image source, BBC Weather Watchers / Geraint

Simon King

Lead Weather Presenter

This week marks the last opportunity to see the "comet of the century", before it disappears for another 80,000 years.

Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) has been visible in recent nights.

It was at its brightest on Monday night for sky-gazers across the United Kingdom.

While the brightness will start to decrease, it will still be possible to see the bright comet on Tuesday night - weather permitting.

Image source, BBC Weather Watchers / Andrew Robertson

Comet A3 was captured by Weather Watcher Andrew Robertson in North Yorkshire on Monday night

There has been a lot of excitement surrounding Comet A3 because of how bright and visible it is.

Many of our BBC Weather Watchers captured the comet with cameras on Monday night.

The comet is expected to be nearly as bright on Tuesday night before the brightness decreases further over the coming week.

The best time to see the comet is around sunset which, tonight, will be between 18:00 to 18:30 BST across the UK.

You will need to look to the west and fairly close to the horizon to catch a bright light with a fainter streak behind it.

As it will be close to the horizon, for best viewing you will have to be away from buildings and have a nice wide view of the western sky.

Exact time of sunset at your location can be found on the BBC Weather website and app.

Image source, BBC Weather Watchers / CMuzz

Comet A3 was visible in the evening sky in St Boswells in the Scottish Borders last night

The other thing needed to see Comet A3 will be some clear skies.

Unfortunately, this is not looking too good for many parts of the UK on Tuesday night with a lot of cloud and rain expected.

North-east Scotland and East Anglia are the only areas where there will be occasional breaks in the cloud.

Further west into Scotland, Northern England, the Midlands and central Southern England, you might get lucky to catch the odd break in the cloud.

However, it is in western areas where the skies will remain overcast with rain which could be heavy at times.

There is even a Met Office yellow severe weather warning for rain across south-west England and Wales.

The forecast for Wednesday evening does not look any more promising either with more cloud and rain for some.

Image source, BBC Weather

Weather forecast for the UK this evening

Image source, BBC Weather Watchers / Chris Canavan

BBC Weather Watchers sent us pictures from across the UK like this one from Londonderry