PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — An ancient comet discovered last year is passing by Earth, and Pittsburghers may get a chance to see it if conditions are right.

KDKA-TV went to Pittsburgh astronomers and astronomy lovers to find out how to catch a glimpse of the rare astronomical event.

This year has been full of cosmic reasons to look up. We put on our protective glasses to view a total solar eclipse. We were captivated by the northern lights more than once. We’ve even been dazzled by meteor showers.

“Now we have a comet,” said astronomer Diane Turnshek, a physics lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University and instructor in the University of Pittsburgh’s Physics and Astronomy Department.

“If I get to see the comet, it’s just one more this year before the year is out for celestial events,” said astronomer Simonetta Frittelli, a Duquesne University physics associate professor.

The comet, known as C-2023-A3 aka Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, will be closest to Earth on Oct. 13. Then it’ll put on a show after sunset each day through the end of October. The best time to view the comet will be between Oct. 14-24.

“It should be visible to your naked eye in the dark sight, possible to your naked eye here in Pittsburgh, and certainly with binoculars and a small telescope,” said Kerry Handron, Allegheny Observatory’s special events and outreach coordinator.

Handron said using binoculars or a telescope will be very helpful, and you can also see the icy dust ball by taking pictures on your phone using night mode/longer exposure times.

“The comet is going to be fuzzy. It’s going to have a tail, maybe two tails. That would be exciting, and we’ll find it in the west,” Handron said.

“Right after sunset looking west, maybe a little south, you should see the comet right as the glare of the sun goes away, and a coma, the dirty snowball part has a big, long trail, which is always pointed away from the sun,” Turnshek said.

“It’s close to the sun so you have to look westward when the sun goes down, and wait a little bit,” Frittelli said.

As the comet moves away from the sun, it’ll get higher in the sky, making it easier to see. But it will get fainter each day. Frittelli said it’s transforming to see a comet.

“The comet just hangs. It hangs in the night sky. It’s just like floating there. It doesn’t move. It’s beautiful. I’ve seen pictures of it taken in other parts of the world already, and it’s beautiful,” Frittelli added.

And if you don’t see this rare astronomical event, you’re out of luck.

“This one comes about every once every 80,000 years. Might seem like a lot to you, but the Neanderthals were walking the Earth at the time so they might have seen it,” Frittelli said.

Turnshek said the ancient comet may never come back.

“It may just get ejected from the solar system,” she said.

“People in the Southern Hemisphere got a chance to see it, but now is our chance to get to see it after sunset. So many things in the sky are exciting. But there haven’t been that many great comets in recent history,” Turnshek added.

During a visit to Western Pennsylvania on Friday, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson called the amount of money Democrats are spending on House races this year “irrational” — even though both Democrats and Republicans are on track to spend less money in the area than they did two years ago.

“Democrats, I think irrationally, have raised a lot of money this cycle,” Johnson said during a stop at an Aliquippa trucking company. “They’ve raised more in a lot of the key races around the country. But ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s not about the quantity of the cash. It’s about the quality of the candidate.”

Johnson was stumping for Republican Congressional candidate Rob Mercuri, who is looking to unseat the Democratic incumbent Chris Deluzio in the 17th Congressional District — and whose own candidacy has been outgunned so far.

The Democrat-aligned House Majority PAC has reserved $1.9 million for ads on the race, while the Republican equivalent, the National Republican Congressional Committee, has reserved only around $700,000, according to AdImpact, which tracks campaign ad spending.

Although Johnson called the amount of Democratic spending “irrational,” outside funders in both parties had each spent more than four times as much on ads — around $8 million — by this point in the 17th District race in 2022.

Mercuri is also being outspent when comparing each campaign head-to-head, without factoring in allied groups. Deluzio’s campaign is spending $1.7 million on ads, according to AdImpact, compared to just $400,000 for Mercuri. Deluzio spent a similar amount of money on ads in 2022, though resources in that race were more evenly matched: Republican candidate Jerememy Shaeffer spent four times as much money on ads in the district in 2022 as Mercuri’s campaign has so far.

Johnson said that Mercuri could make up the difference with help from outside groups.

“The campaign finance laws prevent me from coordinating with our super PACs and the conservative groups that are out there,” Johnson said. “But I know there’s a lot of buzz about Rob’s race. They’re watching it very closely. And my expectation is in the coming days, he’ll have a lot more air cover coming in here at the end, and that’s when it really counts.”

That money has already started to flow in recent weeks. A Super PAC called the Eighteen Fifty-Four Fund has reserved around $1.8 million worth of ads in the final weeks of the campaign starting on October 15. Five family members of Betsy DeVos, the education secretary under former president Donald Trump, are listed as the committee members for the organization in a tax filing. No outside group has spent $3,000 or more on ads for Deluzio.

The 17th Congressional District is expected to be the closest Congressional race in Western Pennsylvania. The Cook Political Report says the voter distribution in the district is about evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, but has listed the race as “lean Democrat.”