Comet C/2019 Y4 (Atlas) brightening fast

[Stu]

15 minutes ago, John said:

It depends on the sky and maybe the observer experience I think Stu. I didn't find C/2019 Y4 Atlas easy with my 102 refractor - pretty hard in fact. The 12 inch dob made it stand out somewhat better of course.

Neither this or Panstarrs are striking objects IMHO. Rather modest and small. I can understand why newcomers to observing would struggle to find and see them.

 

Yep, don't disagree. I think Neil's skies are pretty good even from home from what I remember. I struggled with Panstarrs in my Mewlon from home, pretty subtle and easily missed as you say. Skies are probably the biggest factor as they are faint extended objects, same situation as galaxies really I guess.

I was going to try the 4" but don't think I will bother; if you struggled then I wont have a chance from here.

[Littleguy80]

Skies picked up a lot as the night went on. I think I would have felt a lot less confident about what I saw in the Equinox 80 had I not seen it in the dob too. It helped to be able to compare back and forth with the two scopes.

[Paul73]

Expectations surly managed. I’ll give it a go tonight (cloud permitting).

Paul

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Paul73 said:

Expectations surly managed. I’ll give it a go tonight (cloud permitting).

Paul

Don't call me surly...  😉

[Littleguy80]

I’m away for a short family break in Thetford forest. I brought the Equinox 80 with me. The skies are at step up from home, certainly 20 SQM plus. The beehive was a clear naked eye object. I also managed to see all three members of the Leo triplet. Under these lovely conditions, I was again able to see Comet C/2019 Y4 in the 80mm refractor. Location was as per SkySafari. Obvious with averted vision but visible with direct vision too. 

[AdeKing]

Another failure for me tonight, this time with goto and ED120.

However, in my defence it looked like there was a lot of haze up there tonight  as the background sky was quite bright despite no moon.

Will try again. Surprised by a fail with the ED120, the field stars were correct according to SS, but could not see it where it was supposed to be 😟.

 

[Davey-T]

Too much high, hazy cloud here, was hoping for a clear bit but it's getting worse so given up for tonight.

Dave

[Stu]

Well I may have glimpsed it in the 8" tonight but I certainly won't claim it as a definite. Very very faint from here, just the faintest of hints with AV in the place indicated by Skysafari. Skies were looking quite clear here tonight, although perhaps high haze around contributing to a brighter sky background.

[Pete Presland]

looking forward to having a go when the skies clear.

[Littleguy80]

Despite a cloudier than forecast night, I managed to spend some more time with this comet tonight. I was just using my 10” dob. I had an initial misfire due to a misaligned finder that saw me land on the galaxy NGC 2787 thinking it was the comet. The star field just wasn’t adding up with SkySafari though. Once I figured out what I was actually looking at, I fixed the finder alignment and moved onto the comet. This evening the comet was next to the triangle asterism that is commonly used as part of a star hopping route to M81/M82. The comet is brighter and easier to spot than last Sunday night. I was comparing back and forth with Comet C/2017 T2 (Panstarrs). I concluded that this comet is more diffuse than C/2017 T2 giving it an impression of being dimmer. However, I could make out the dim glow of C/2019 Y4 in the 9x50 Finderscope. I was consistently putting the comet in the centre of the FOV of my 9mm eyepiece (133x mag with 0.75 degree FOV) by putting the the Finderscope crosshairs on the glow I could see. This gave me a high degree of confidence that I was seeing the comet in the Finderscope. With C/2017 T2 I couldn’t see any hint of the comet in the Finderscope. Of course, C/2019 Y4 is much better positioned with it being closer to the zenith.

Inspired by the post below, I had a go at seeing if I could get a sense of the comet moving over the course of a few minutes. Can’t say that I did. Probably if I checked back every 30 mins or so there would be a noticeable shift in position. 

It’s well worth giving this comet a go. 

[Mike JW]

Hi Neil, thanks for linking folk to my post. The comet is nice visually in my 15" Dob and yes after 30 mins you should be able to detect that it has moved. Sometimes I will look at a comet at the start of a session, do a quick sketch with ref stars and then go back to it at the end of a session. Cheers Mike

[Littleguy80]

54 minutes ago, Mike JW said:

Hi Neil, thanks for linking folk to my post. The comet is nice visually in my 15" Dob and yes after 30 mins you should be able to detect that it has moved. Sometimes I will look at a comet at the start of a session, do a quick sketch with ref stars and then go back to it at the end of a session. Cheers Mike

Hey Mike. No worries and thank you for posting. I’m definitely going to try again to spot some movement. Sketching is a good idea  

[John]

Got this one and Panstarrs again tonight with the 12 inch dob.

Panstarrs is still currently brighter and larger I reckon. Neither spectacular by any means but comets are always worth having a look at

[Littleguy80]

On 14/03/2020 at 16:53, Mark at Beaufort said:

Checking some more the comet we should be following, at the moment, is C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS) not Y4. Y1 is the brighter Comet and its just on the top of Andromeda near Alpheraz.

I just picked up Comet C/2019 Y1 in Andromeda. It’s an easy star hop from M31 and quite an easy spot in my 10” dob despite being quite low. I went on for further views of C/2017 T2 and C/2019 Y4. We now have three reasonably bright comets!

[John]

8 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

I just picked up Comet C/2019 Y1 in Andromeda. It’s an easy star hop from M31 and quite an easy spot in my 10” dob despite being quite low. I went on for further views of C/2017 T2 and C/2019 Y4. We now have three reasonably bright comets!

Unfortunately Andromeda is behind houses for me currently.

They are reasonably bright but I would not want anyone who has not seen them yet to think they are in any way spectacular objects to be honest. Worth finding but hardly showstoppers !

[Stu]

3 minutes ago, John said:

Unfortunately Andromeda is behind houses for me currently.

They are reasonably bright but I would not want anyone who has not seen them yet to think they are in any way spectacular objects to be honest. Worth finding but hardly showstoppers !

Certainly not bright John, agreed, particularly with any amount of LP, that makes them very tricky objects. My skies are normally around mag 19 on an SQM, about Mag 5 NELM.

I’ve just about about spotted Y4 in the 12” dob but it was pretty tough, needing just the right magnification to pull it out of the background brightness. I doubt T2 and Y1 are possible at the moment as they are lower down in the LP.

[Davey-T]

Looking brighter tonight and showing a tail to north east I think.

Just trying to figure out which way it's moving and how fast to put it off centre for time lapse

Dave

Phone pic of screen

120sec 10"SCT Atik 314L 2x2

[Stu]

9 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Looking brighter tonight and showing a tail to north east I think.

Just trying to figure out which way it's moving and how fast to put it off centre for time lapse

Dave

Phone pic of screen

120sec 10"SCT Atik 314L 2x2

Looks good Dave! I’m all tucked up, early start tomorrow but I think anyone out is going to have a good night! Enjoy!

[bish]

I found PANSTARRS with my 250mm, but it was on the limit. Dark adapted eyes and a wobble of the scope to catch it. Tried Atlas but no luck, although I am fairly certain I was in the right place (according to Heavens Above - Sky Safari doesn't show it)

[Davey-T]

2 minutes ago, bish said:

I found PANSTARRS with my 250mm, but it was on the limit. Dark adapted eyes and a wobble of the scope to catch it. Tried Atlas but no luck, although I am fairly certain I was in the right place (according to Heavens Above - Sky Safari doesn't show it)

You can update Sky Safari to show it, I used Stellarium but it seemed a bit out,

Dave

[bish]

Just now, Davey-T said:

You can update Sky Safari to show it, I used Stellarium but it seemed a bit out,

Dave

Thanks, I will give it a go. Heavens Above was a bit out with T2, but not much.

[Davey-T]

22 minutes ago, bish said:

Thanks, I will give it a go. Heavens Above was a bit out with T2, but not much.

Its in settings / solar system / update minor bodies at bottom.

And tick show comets.

Dave

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Davey-T

[John]

I find Cartes du Ciel pretty much spot on with comets.

 

[Mark at Beaufort]

I set up both my 12" Dob and 150P Newt to view these 3 Comets. I first used my 150P Newt to view Y1 (Atlas) -  very low in Andromeda - too low for my Dob. As Neil stated its a reasonable star hop from M31. Check out position in Stellarium and was able to see the Comet using 13mm Ethos and 9mm Myraid.

Over to the 12" to view Y4 (Atlas) - very easy to locate and seemed reasonably bright - first time at viewing this Comet. Next T2 stopping over at Iota Cass to view this lovely multiple star then picked up T2 nearby. Really pleased to start the observing evening with 3 Comets before observing DSOs.

[Paul73]

Nice and bright greenish glow here. Glad to have spotted it.

Being close to a nice little triangle of bright stars certainly helped with the location.

Paul