Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS)

[Littleguy80]

Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) has increased in magnitude significantly over the last few days and was therefore at the top of my "To See" list. This evening presented my first opportunity to try for it. The weather forecast had worsened throughout the day but looked like it should be clear at some point. Around 22:15 I spotted stars on the horizon so I took my Equinox 80 refractor outside. The clouds were still covering Ursa Major, where the comet is currently residing, so I went and grabbed my 10" dob too. My plan was to go widefield so I could try and see the comet alongside M81 and M82. As the clouds cleared, I managed a view of the two galaxies but not the comet. I switched from 40mm Aero eyepiece to the Baader zoom. A brief pause to wait for the next clear patch and I was off again. Clicking up through the magnifications I caught the hazy glow of the comet. It was faint but I felt sure it was there. The cloud returned and I had a moment to plan my next move. Time for the the dob. After 15 minutes or so of waiting the clouds parted. Starting at M81/M82 I started to move towards the comet and hit upon a grey fuzzy but it didn't look like a comet I then realised that I'd found the galaxy NGC 2976. Shortly afterwards, I had the comet in the eyepiece. After Comet C/2017 T2 (Panstarrs), the new comet seemed quite large and diffuse but clear with the larger aperture. I found my APM HDC 13mm gave the best views. Clouds arrived again and it was another 30 mins before I could return to observing.

I decided to try again for the widefield view of M81/M82 and the comet. The view was hazy and even the galaxies seemed faint. I returned to the dob and the Comet seemed clearer than ever. I picked out a mag 12.8 star which was close to the comet's core. Now I was confused, skies looked good in the dob but poor in the refractor. The answer was obvious, the refractor had dewed up. I took it inside and cleared the dew with a hair drier. Back outside and things looked much better. I was finally able to get the view of M81/M82 and the comet that I was after. My ES82 30mm eyepiece giving a superb widefield in the Equinox 80. Finally I decided to try for the comet with my 10x50 binoculars. M81/M82 were obvious with the bins. The comet was a maybe in averted vision. A night of cloud dodging but really rewarding and thoroughly enjoyable. I've now seen 10 comets since I started observing in 2017.  

[andrew63]

Great night Neil. I had no joy, at least not definitive with my ST80 - conditions not very transparent. Right up by by Bodes galaxies so looking forward to seeing some images.

andrew

[jock1958]

Nice report @Littleguy80.  Using M81 / 82 as pointers I failed to see anything using my Tak FC100DL, 31MM Nagler & 14mm Delos. It's cloudy down here tonight so will give it a go later in the week.

Edited March 16, 2020 by jock1958

[Littleguy80]

2 hours ago, andrew63 said:

Great night Neil. I had no joy, at least not definitive with my ST80 - conditions not very transparent. Right up by by Bodes galaxies so looking forward to seeing some images.

andrew

Thanks Andrew. Conditions really picked up as the night went on. Having the dob to compare the views with against the Equinox 80 really helped. 

[Littleguy80]

59 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Nice report @Littleguy80.  Using M81 / 82 as pointers I failed to see anything using my Tak FC100DL, 31MM Nagler & 14mm Delos. It's cloudy down here tonight so will give it a go later in the week.

How was the transparency? It was tricky early on but as conditions improved it seemed to become an easier spot. Probably improving dark adaptation helped too. 

[jock1958]

45 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

How was the transparency? It was tricky early on but as conditions improved it seemed to become an easier spot. Probably improving dark adaptation helped too. 

Transparency wasn't great, I'm also in a fairly LP area (Bortle 4-5) with a next door neighbour who seems to leave a bright light on all night with curtains open!  

[Littleguy80]

8 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Transparency wasn't great, I'm also in a fairly LP area (Bortle 4-5) with a next door neighbour who seems to leave a bright light on all night with curtains open!  

That’s annoying. I use an observing hood to help block all the light like that. It really does help IMHO. 

[Nyctimene]

Nice report, Neil, as usual.

Had similar conditions yesterday evening 22.00-23.00 CET, when I took out the 5.1" Heritage - high haze, some clouds and chimney smoke interfering, along with a lot of stray light. Spotted the comet in the 26mmf ES, giving 25x mag, as a faint, diffuse glow (DC=3), best seen with mags 25x-50x (S.zoom) and averted vision. Brightness appeared around 9.0 mag, coma diameter about 6 arc min; no nucleus or tail visible. Not spectacular, but there is hope for the next weeks...

Stephan

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by Nyctimene

[Space Hopper]

I'll have a look for it myself next time i'm out.

Mind you .....Panstars was a tough one to spot. I finally saw it with averted vision last time out.

These comets need to brighten up a bit !! 😃

[Littleguy80]

2 hours ago, Nyctimene said:

Nice report, Neil, as usual.

Had similar conditions yesterday evening 22.00-23.00 CET, when I took out the 5.1" Heritage - high haze, some clouds and chimney smoke interfering, along with a lot of stray light. Spotted the comet in the 26mmf ES, giving 25x mag, as a faint, diffuse glow (DC=3), best seen with mags 25x-50x (S.zoom) and averted vision. Brightness appeared around 9.0 mag, coma diameter about 6 arc min; no nucleus or tail visible. Not spectacular, but there is hope for the next weeks...

Stephan

 

Thanks Stephan. Glad to hear you saw it. The Heritage is a great scope. I also found this comet didn’t respond so well to magnification. With C/2017 T2 I go straight to my 9mm eyepiece (133x) with the dob. My 13mm (92x) was the highest I could go with this comet. It’s interesting how these objects all respond differently to magnification/exit pupil. 

[Littleguy80]

2 hours ago, Space Hopper said:

I'll have a look for it myself next time i'm out.

Mind you .....Panstars was a tough one to spot. I finally saw it with averted vision last time out.

These comets need to brighten up a bit !! 😃

Best of luck. They make a great challenge. This one is still brightening so definitely one to watch  

[Stu]

1 minute ago, Littleguy80 said:

Best of luck. They make a great challenge. This one is still brightening so definitely one to watch  

Do you know the current brightness Neil? Will likely try with the zoom tonight so I can tune the mag.

[Littleguy80]

15 minutes ago, Stu said:

Do you know the current brightness Neil? Will likely try with the zoom tonight so I can tune the mag.

It’s currently listed at mag 8.6 by the site linked above. The zoom is a good call. Last night it didn’t seem to mag as well as C/2017 T2 does. 

[jock1958]

5 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

That’s annoying. I use an observing hood to help block all the light like that. It really does help IMHO. 

HI Neil do you use anything special as regards observing hood or is it a big coat or blanket? probably a stupid question 🤔

[Littleguy80]

3 hours ago, jock1958 said:

HI Neil do you use anything special as regards observing hood or is it a big coat or blanket? probably a stupid question 🤔

Not a stupid question at all. I actually have a proper observing hood these days though I have used an old towel in the past. The observing hood I have is the one reviewer below. I can wholeheartedly recommend it!

 

[Stu]

No luck here. Skies are quite nice but if it is where Skysafari says it is, it's not visible from here as I was in exactly the right place. Tried a range of mag but no go.

[John]

This is where Cartes du Ciel puts C/2019 Y4 Atlas. It was spot on last night:

[Stu]

Yes, that looks right John, thanks for the confirmation. Might try again later if it stays clear.

[Nyctimene]

Was out this morning 03.00-03.45 CET, this time with the 8"f/4 Hofheim Instruments traveldob, equipped with the 2" ES 24mmf/82°, giving 33x mag. The comet was conveniently located very close to the "pointer triangle" for the search of M 81/82, and the conditions better than a week before (NELM 5.8 mag) - no contrails from the flights leaving Frankfurt airport 60 km NNW, due to the Corona situation. The comet's coma was almost round, DC=4-5, with a diameter of about 8-10 arc min, and a very faint outer sphere extending to 15-20 arc min. No tail, but a conspicuous "false nucleus". Within 20 min, the comet's movement was noticeable. Brightness about 8.5 mag; I compared it to the M 60 galaxy in the Virgo cluster, that gave a similar view. -  M 81/82, along with gx 3077, were impressive. I tried once more to spot IC 2574 (Coddington's nebula) close by, and had, after 10 mins, sometimes the impression of it's faint glow, but I guess, it was "averted imagination". A really tough one. Cold and very windy here, so I finished after 45 mins, hoping for the next nights.

Stephan

[MKHACHFE]

Well...i would like to publicly pat myself on the back for having tracked this sucker down just now...took quite a while...and it didn't look like much through my XT8 from my B6 skies. But I found it and looked at it with various EPs...all just showed an incredibly faint fuzz. So faint...but there. 

What probably didn't help was my dark adaptation being ruined by my wife and mother in law constantly putting the kitchen or bathroom lights on, bathing the garden in photons. They turned both on at the same time at one point, even though i asked them not to for 30 mins. Sigh. 

Anyway...I haven't read the replies yet, but to anyone who didn't manage to spot it...keep trying. Its so satisfying to track down something so faint. I'm sure the more seasoned of you have don something like this countless times, but I'm still a relative newbie and will take every victory I can. 

I'm crossing all my fingers and toes it brightens in the next few months. 

 

Cheers

[Littleguy80]

35 minutes ago, MKHACHFE said:

Well...i would like to publicly pat myself on the back for having tracked this sucker down just now...took quite a while...and it didn't look like much through my XT8 from my B6 skies. But I found it and looked at it with various EPs...all just showed an incredibly faint fuzz. So faint...but there. 

What probably didn't help was my dark adaptation being ruined by my wife and mother in law constantly putting the kitchen or bathroom lights on, bathing the garden in photons. They turned both on at the same time at one point, even though i asked them not to for 30 mins. Sigh. 

Anyway...I haven't read the replies yet, but to anyone who didn't manage to spot it...keep trying. Its so satisfying to track down something so faint. I'm sure the more seasoned of you have don something like this countless times, but I'm still a relative newbie and will take every victory I can. 

I'm crossing all my fingers and toes it brightens in the next few months. 

 

Cheers

Good job on spotting it. I completely agree that these are very satisfying targets to hunt down. I like to track them as long as they stay observable. Really fun to see them move through the constellations over a number of months. 
My kids are used to getting in trouble for turning on lights at inconvenient times 😂

[andrew63]

I managed to see the comet C/2019 Y4 atlas tonight in my ST80 as a diffuse largish glow. At 16x provided perhaps the best view but also 32x in average seeing.  Hopefully a good binocular object under dark skies.

andrew

[verreli]

Dark skies tonight!

[bish]

Was supposed to be clear for me last night but a thin layer of cloud meant comets were a no go.  Although I did try for an hour!

[Waddensky]

Just had a view of C/2019 Y4 with my 10x50 binoculars. A quite large, diffuse glow, conveniently placed between two stars of mag 8.4 and 8.7. The 'triangle' is still useful to locate the comet, which can be found on a line between the tip of the triangle Rho UMa (mag 4.8) and HR 3182 (mag 5.3). While I was in the neighbourhood, I visited M81, M82, M51, all bright and easy. Even got a glimpse, to my surprise, of a ghostly, subtle, but unmistakable M101.