Worden residents take spectacular photos of passing comets

WORDEN – Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS has been visible to the naked eye in 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 photograph the comet in her backyard.

As a professional photographer, Bagley wouldn't miss her shot as the comet passed overhead.

“It happens every 80,000 years, so it's the only time you can see it,” Bagley said Monday at her home in Worden. “I looked at my husband and thought, 'Oh, the comet is out.' I have to check it out.

Even though Bagley was 44 million miles away, he was able to take this photo of the comet.

Jennifer Bagley

“I was really excited to see it… A lot of people didn't even know it was happening, and most people were like, 'Oh, how did you notice 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 who had a good 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, the more it finally appeared,” said Rick Dees, science teacher at the Huntley Project.

Dees took photos of the comet near Roundup on Sunday evening.

“Maybe I only saw three of these things. So it’s not every day that you see one of these,” Dees said. “It’s pretty exciting, so it’s a good time to be a science teacher.”

Rick Dees

“It comes from the Oort cloud, which makes it what we call a long-period comet. These things are not like Halley's Comet, which they will revisit over the course of a human lifetime,” said Steven Wiles, a lecturer at MSU Billings.

Wiles said the last people likely to have seen the comet were Neanderthals.

“You think to yourself, you know, if I lived a thousand years ago or ten thousand years ago, I would be looking at this. I would be afraid. But today I know what it is,” Wiles joked.

Matthew Dominick

It's a rare sight, but it should be visible for the rest of the week.

“If you want to see the comet's head, even binoculars will probably give you a pretty damn good view. And you'll want to look west. This Saturday it'll probably be like this: “Wait a minute.” “Her arm extends a couple of fists over where the sun sets,” Wiles said.

“If you have five seconds, five minutes, whatever, watch it, do it. Take a photo. Take a picture,” Bagley said.