Comet C/2019 Y4 (Atlas) brightening fast

[Paul M]

32 minutes ago, HaleBopp2007 said:

Well, if ATLAS does an ''ISON''

Thanks for that. I'd been trying to remember that one without Google.

I remember watching it's perihelion passage via one of the solar observatories on-line and then, err, oh dear, gone in a puff of water vapor! 

Looks like Atlas isn't going to get that far in any coherent form.

[PeterW]

The least it could have done is go out with  a bang like Holmes did.. :-((

 

peter

[HaleBopp2007]

2 hours ago, PeterW said:

The least it could have done is go out with  a bang like Holmes did.. :-((

 

peter

Yeah, I'd like that. It would've been a decent naked eye comet. I have hope that in the next few decades a comet will appear and will finally give to people in the northern a glorious spectacle, like Ikeya-Seki, Hale-Bopp, Hyakutake or West did. But I think we have some days left, and, who knows! Maybe ATLAS does bang like 17P and give us a few days of a decent naked eye comet, but it's quite unprobable. 😔

Edited April 10, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[Fraunhoffer]

Picture from 8th.  45x45s Moonlight and shooting over a streetlight not the best conditions. 

[Littleguy80]

Took my first look at Comet C/2019 Y4 since the reported breakup. The drop in brightness is quite significant. With the SQM reading 19.5, I was still able to pick it up though. I moved onto C/2017 T2 which is comparatively much brighter. Similarly C/2019 Y1, which is now in Cassiopeia, was easily seen at low power despite being much lower than C/2019 Y4. I views both as nebulous glow with a bright core at 133x mag. For the comet hunters there’s still two good comets to observe even if this one fades away. 

[Davey-T]

Single 300secs 10"SCT Atik314L APT.67 f/r pic' off screen.

No real sign of nucleus.

Dave

[HaleBopp2007]

Well, I guess the comet's dead 😔

Edit: It will be dead soon*

Edited April 12, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[JamesF]

47 minutes ago, HaleBopp2007 said:

Well, I guess the comet's dead 😔

It's not dead.  It's just resting.

Beautiful coma, the Y4 ATLAS.

James

[Corncrake]

Oh booo

The latest prediction on the graph that @Littleguy80 (thanks)  linked in the first post is not a happy sight !

Oh dear, yet another to add to the Kohoutek memory file.

[Waddensky]

Just went out for the first comet hunt since the last full moon. Armed with my 10x50, C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) was - as expected - nowhere near as bright as it was the last dark nights before the full moon. A dim, slightly elongated smudge near 42 Cam. According to the latest observations, the comet is now around mag 9.3.

C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS) was a whole other story. Bright, large, and easily seen without averted vision near Gam Cam. Mag 8.2.

The other bright ATLAS, C/2019 Y1, was a bit doubtful. It's easily located in Cassiopeia's 'W', but it's quite a crowded field over there. According to SkySafari, it's very close to HD 3224 (mag 8.8) but I noticed a small patch of light about the same brightness a few arcminutes lower. A bit more concentrated and smaller than T2. Not really sure. Mag 8.7 according to recent estimates. Nearby NGC 129 was wonderful, with a few individual stars resolved using averted vision.

[HaleBopp2007]

I found this photo of the comet... I think that people in very dark skies might see the divided nucleus of the comet.

Edited April 12, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[Davey-T]

It's not very well placed for me now being in S London light pollution but I'll have another shot at it tonight to see if the clouds hold off.

Dave

[Davey-T]

Quick 120 secs between clouds. looks about the same as last night.

Dave

[Star101]

I took this last night. But it was not fully dark...maybe 8:50pm

 

[HaleBopp2007]

Well, it's absolutely confirmed. The Hubble Space Telescope shows it perfectly in this spectacular but sad image. 

 

[mdstuart]

My wife just said that's not a comet it's car headlights.

Mark