• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Comet C/2019 Y4 (aka ATLAS)

Bigphoot2

Not sprouts! I hate sprouts.
Joined
Jul 30, 2005
Messages
11,071
How to see bright Comet ATLAS
Posted by Eddie Irizarry in SPACE | March 22, 2020
Recently discovered comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) isn’t bright enough to see with the unaided eye … yet. But it’s getting brighter. Will it provide a good show or fizzle out? Click here to learn more.

A recently discovered comet is getting the attention of astronomers and sky enthusiasts as it’s become brighter than expected in the last few days. Astronomers using the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) in Hawaii discovered Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) on December 28, 2019. As of mid-late March, it shines at about the brightness of an 8th-magnitude star – not visible to the eye yet – but within reach of medium-sized telescopes in dark skies. The comet is currently crossing Mars’ orbit and is approaching the inner solar system. As it gets closer to us, it’ll get brighter still. You’ll find charts for observers at the bottom of this post.
Comet ATLAS should become bright enough to be easily visible in binoculars, and perhaps bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye from dark sky locations.
etc

https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-see-bright-comet-c-2019-y4-atlas
 
The comet mentioned upthread is getting brighter...

https://www.space.com/comet-atlas-may-be-brightenting.html

The possible celestial showpiece is known as Comet ATLAS, or C/2019 Y4. When it was discovered on Dec. 28, 2019, it was quite faint, but since then, it has been brightening so rapidly that astronomers have high hopes for the spectacle it could put on. But given the tricky nature of comets, skywatchers are also being cautious not to get their hopes up, knowing that the comet may fizzle out.

And...

Until a couple of weeks ago, it was brightening at an astounding rate. That brightening has slowed somewhat, but it is still an impossible rate of brightening to maintain. Were ATLAS to continue to brighten at this rate all the way to its closest approach to the sun at the end of May, it would end up rivaling the planet Venus in brightness!

So... will it get amazingly bright just in time for us all to see it?
 
... Today I have been feeling very down, not least because I rang a friend for a sympathy chat/pep talk but she was asleep and so I got her partner instead.

Bl00dy 'ell, I got the benefit of his grand conspiracy theories for a whole hour. ...
I had the opposite happen last week, I was talking to my friend Barry on the phone and mentioned the crazy conspiracy theories going around, the strangest being comet atlas, he started saying "that makes a lot of sense, what if its true", I then had to spend the next 20 mins talking him round to being sane again, I felt really bad about it and made a mental note not to talk conspiracy, no matter how outlandish.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had the opposite happen last week, I was talking to my friend Barry on the phone and mentioned the crazy conspiracy theories going around, the strangest being comet atlas, he started saying "that makes a lot of sense, what if its true".

I don't know what the conspiracy theories are concerning comet Atlas, maybe it involves the idea of panspermia ?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I don't know what the conspiracy theories are concerning comet Atlas, maybe it involves the idea of panspermia ?

I wondered this also because there seems to be a resurgence of the Nibiru theory, somehow connected to Covid 19.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top