Three Comets

[stevewanstall]

Currently there are three comets visible in the Northern Hemisphere. One, C/2019 Y4 Atlas, was hoped to become a real stunner but seems to have fragmented in the last week and has dimmed somewhat, currently at magnitude 9.4. The other two, C/2019 Y1 Atlas (9.6)and C/2017 T2 Pannstarrs (8.7) are not expected to become naked eye objects.
After previously taking some images of Y4 Atlas and finding out about turning off dither, I decided to have another go. I have taken 240 s exposures, calibrated with flats and dark flats and created gifs from the unstacked  stretched frames. (DSS, Lightroom and a gif maker).

The 2019 Y1 and 2017 T2 seem much brighter than 2019 Y4;  the magnitudes were from the information pane in Cartes du Ciel, after I had updated the comet information last night. I imagine it shows the ongoing fragmentation of Y4.

 

This is C/2017 T2 Panstarrs:

 

This is  C/2019 Y1 Atlas (the 'old'Atlas):

 

This is C/2019 Y4 Atlas, the one that is fragmenting and becoming dimmer:

[Johan L]

Great images. What equipment are you using?

[stevewanstall]

On 17/04/2020 at 13:36, Johan L said:

Great images. What equipment are you using?

Equipment: Celestron 9.25 XLT at F10,  Skywatcher EQ6 Pro GEM, ZWO 1600MM Pro, ZWO EFW with ZWO LRGB filters, QHY5IIC guide camera on Skywatcher 9 x 50 finderscope