Hongkongers look to the skies for ‘once-in-80,000-year’ sighting of passing comet

Amateur astronomers have flocked outside in recent weeks to witness a comet visible above Hong Kong’s skies, with many overjoyed at the chance to witness the “once-in-80,000-year” sight.

Residents took to social media to report sightings of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS from Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan, Cyberport and Tsim Sha Tsui.

“I managed to capture it with my smaller-than-palm camera at about 6.50pm on October 13,” Tak Shing Au wrote in a reply to a Facebook post by the Hong Kong Space Museum. “It was the first time I captured a comet. So happy.”

Fellow Facebook user Kam Hung said he felt “blessed” to be able to see the comet.

“So grateful today that I could leave early after work and join the recent comet fever,” he said.

“I left home before sunrise for days, at last I could see it,” user Fallen Chan replied to a social media post by the Hong Kong Observatory, attaching a photo he took in the comment.

But some mistook contrails, clouds that form when water freezes around small particles in aircraft exhaust, for signs of the comet’s passing.