Forecasting what comets will do should always carry with it some caution as their behaviour can be unpredictable.

This is especially true when announcements are made about 'a bright comet is coming'.

So with that in mind, let’s say it is 'possible' we will have a bright comet widely visible from the UK in mid-October.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is currently visible from the southern hemisphere and reached its closest point to the Sun in late September.

Closest approach to the Earth will be on October 12 and few nights after that, the comet should hopefully become visible to the unaided eye in our western sky after sunset.

The map shows its location at 7pm on October 16, when the comet will be level in the sky with the bright orange coloured star Arcturus.

The comet will then climb higher up the evening sky night by night and if it is showing a tail, this should become more readily seen against a darker sky background.

The clocks go back to GMT on Sunday, October 27. after which sunset is at 4.30pm by the end of the month.

There will be an annular eclipse of the sun on October 2, but this will not be visible from the UK. Seen from parts of the Pacific and South America, the moon will cover most of the sun, but not quite all, leaving a bright ring.

Saturn is at its best in the south at around 10pm this month.  

Jupiter becomes steadily more prominent through October and will be about 30 degrees up in the east in the hour before midnight, shining brightly amongst the stars of Taurus.

The waning moon will be nearby Jupiter on the night of the 20th/21st. In the last week of October, with the moon out of the late evening sky, the view towards the east includes the prominent constellations of Taurus, Orion and Gemini.

As well as Jupiter in this array of stars, the planet Mars can also be seen from midnight onwards, lower down in the sky to the left of Jupiter, and lined up with the twin stars of Gemini.  

Full moon is on the 17th and will be noticeably higher in the sky than the low summer moons.