Sammy Intl. Airlines

We'll get you there unless we don't.

Comet Atlas C/2019Y4

Comet C2019&4 (Atlas) was discoverd on December 28, 2019 as partof the Atlas survey (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS)) and has an orbital period of about 4,800 years. It was discovered using a 20 inch / 508mm reflecting telescope located atop Mauna Loa in Hawaii. With its orbital period, I don't think I'll be around to image it again. UPDATE!! Comet Atlas disintigrated and is no more so, no I won't be around to image it.

Comet Atlas Y4 Taken March 19, 2020
Comet Atlas Y4 Taken March 19, 2020

Click for larger GIF.

Picture Description

We imaged Atlas Y4 with an Explorer Scientific 127mm APO telescope mounted on an Orion EQ-G mount guiding with a 50mm guide scope and PHD2 guiding software. We attempted guiding on the comet and that is what makes the stars in the background jump but you can tell the comet is moving. We took 100 images at 2 minute exposures using AstroPhotograpy Tools and used every other image to create the gif file. Using them all would have been over 254 megabytes and woud take forever to load. Hopefully the weather will clear and we can get more pictures as the comet brightens. Alas and alack, Atlas disintigrated into about 25 pieces and is no more.