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Comet C/2019 Y4 (Atlas) brightening fast

Littleguy80

By Littleguy80
in Celestial Events Heads Up

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bish

bish

Posted
Posted

I failed again last night, but it was quite misty out. Just to see how bad it was I had a quick look at M51 and was it barely visible in my 10" dob.  Seemed the conditions weren't good enough. Another try tonight!! Just glad to get Panstarrs before the skies cloud over again.

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Littleguy80
Littleguy80

Thanks to @Davey-T for bringing this to my attention. The Comet C/2019 Y4 (Atlas) has brightening, currently at mag 9.8. Some good info here: http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2019Y4?fbclid=IwAR0

John
John

Comet hunting setup. 4.1 degree true field  

John
John

Turned out nicely in the end. Saw two of the comets plus lots of galaxies in Leo and Ursa Major. Lovely to be looking through the eyepiece at things millions of light years away and taking my mind off

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John

John

Posted
Posted

Just had a look with my Tak 100mm refractor.

Fairly easy to find but I still feel that it is a bit dimmer than M82 (mag  8.4) despite the claimed mag 8.0 for the comet :icon_scratch:

 

 

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Waddensky

Waddensky

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, John said:

Fairly easy to find but I still feel that it is a bit dimmer than M82 (mag  8.4) despite the claimed mag 8.0 for the comet :icon_scratch:

I noticed this too, but I also noticed the comet is a bit larger than M82. It's quite possible the surface brightness of C/2019 Y4 is lower because the total brightness is spread out over a larger area.

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John

John

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, Waddensky said:

I noticed this too, but I also noticed the comet is a bit larger than M82. It's quite possible the surface brightness of C/2019 Y4 is lower because the total brightness is spread out over a larger area.

I felt that the comet was less extensive than M82 but my sky is not that transparent tonight.

You could well be right about mag 8 being an integrated figure while the surface brightness of the comet is less.

 

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Waddensky

Waddensky

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Rocket Stars said:

I had a look at Stellarium, but it is not listed there. How do one find it?

Maybe you need to update the orbital elements. The procedure for Stellarium is described here. Good luck and clear skies!

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JamesF

JamesF

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Rocket Stars said:

I had a look at Stellarium, but it is not listed there. How do one find it? Would be nice to have a look. Looks like Ill have some clear skies this night!!

It can be in Stellarium, but you need to download the data.  Unfortunately I can't recall how to do that right now and I don't have Stellarium on this computer, but if you search for how to add comets to Stellarium you will hopefully find what you need.

James

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markse68

markse68

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 23/03/2020 at 07:54, Stu said:

SkySafari was bang on for me last night, this is the position for 10pm tonight

80F99C3A-53A4-412B-A091-7828FE14D8A6.png

Hi @Stu, how did you manage to turn off the comet tail in SS? I’ve searched but can’t find a setting and it obscures the field stars. Think I’ve found it now anyway- very dim in a very light polluted part of the sky where I am and it’s so hazy tonight

Edited by markse68
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Paul M

Paul M

Posted
Posted

I had my first look for it last night with my 10" Newt. Miserable fail on two counts probably. The Moon was well up by then and the sky was washed out and I'd probably done my roughest ever alignment and I'm usually rough. Unfortunately I couldn't identify any of the field stars at my search location on SkySafari, very unusual but given the sky brightness and my eyes still being dazzled from soaking up the Moon for a good while...

I hope to try again during its accelerating dive Sunward.

 

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John

John

Posted
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14 minutes ago, Paul M said:

I had my first look for it last night with my 10" Newt. Miserable fail on two counts probably. The Moon was well up by then and the sky was washed out and I'd probably done my roughest ever alignment and I'm usually rough. Unfortunately I couldn't identify any of the field stars at my search location on SkySafari, very unusual but given the sky brightness and my eyes still being dazzled from soaking up the Moon for a good while...

I hope to try again during its accelerating dive Sunward.

 

I had a cursory look for it with my ED120 last night but the sky was awash with moonlight and I'd found the comet underwhelming with my 12 inch dob a couple of nights previously so I didn't pursue it.

Sadly I don't think this one will get anywhere near the once-predicted magnitude in May of -1

It will probably be a "fizzler" rather than a "sizzler" :rolleyes2:

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estwing

estwing

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, John said:

I don't think this one will get anywhere near the once-predicted magnitude in May of -1

It will probably be a "fizzler" rather than a "sizzler" :rolleyes2:

How many times has this happened?..oh well, something to take our minds off the current situation 

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Geoff Barnes

Geoff Barnes

Posted
Posted (edited)

From https://www.spaceweather.com/ today....

COMET ATLAS IS BREAKING UP: This could be the beginning of the end. Once-promising Comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) appears to be falling apart as it plunges toward the sun. Newly-released images from the NEXT telescope in China suggest that a "major disruption" of the comet's core is underway.

:(  :(:( 

Edited by Geoff Barnes
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HaleBopp2007

HaleBopp2007

Posted
Posted (edited)

The fragmentation of the comet is getting worse! Not looking good at all! 😟

spacer.png

I'm pretty convinced that the comet will completely disintegrate soon! I hope that doesn't happen, but it looks really bad!

Edited by HaleBopp2007
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Bagginsies

Bagginsies

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Throw your biggest aperture at it as soon as you can, looks like it’s dropping fast :-((

Peter

 

Next good clear night here without a moon is Monday! Hope it will last till then? Fingers are crossed? 

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HaleBopp2007

HaleBopp2007

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Bagginsies said:

Next good clear night here without a moon is Monday! Hope it will last till then? Fingers are crossed? 

I hope you're right... Yup! Fingers crossed 🤞 But the weather isn't with me, unfortunately... So watch the last of it while you can!

Edited by HaleBopp2007
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