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Old 03-23-2020, 10:26 PM   #1
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Comet in late May -- hope we can hit the boonies to see it!

Hoping that this comet does not fizzle out and that we can travel to our favorite boondocking sites to enjoy the dark sky:


https://phys.org/news/2020-03-comet-atlas.html
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Old 03-28-2020, 07:06 PM   #2
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Finger's crossed it doesn't fizzle. Remember comet ISON from 2013? Early on it too was brightening much faster than expected and there was speculation it could be the "comet-of-the-century" but ended up being a bit of a yawner. I have my scope all set-up and ready in my observatory but need this typical Pacific NorthWET weather to break long enough to take a look-see. I'm itching to see a nice comet and am hopeful Atlas will scratch that itch.

Just for giggles, I remember as a young kid in the early 1960s reading about Halley's Comet and doing the math to see how old I'd be when it showed in '86. Got into amateur astronomy in the mid 60s and excitedly looked forward to seeing the most famous comet in recent history. Then as Halley heads inward to toward the sun the predictions start coming in. While the 1910 apparition had the most favorable with orbital timing and positions of the comet and the Earth, 1986 would be one of the worst. All that waiting and the comet was going to pass far from the Earth with the tail pointing almost directly away from us. So much for a childhood dream. Packed a telescope on a plane to Hawaii and it rained almost all week. The night before our return flight, it cleared and I jumped in the rental car and drove to the top of Haleakalā. There it was, a smudge in the southern sky in Centaurus. Took this shot with a 135mm lens with my film camera piggybacked on the scope as the comet made it's closest approach to the Earth. This is the most famous Comet most people have ever heard of. The most beautiful comet I've ever seen was Comet Hyakutake in '96. It needed a dark sky away from lights to be really seen but it spanned nearly 1/3 of the sky almost directly overhead. It was stunning even though it's surface brightness was somewhat low.

Hoping Atlas give us a nice show. Ironically, comets throughout history have frequently been claimed to be harbingers of doom. With this virus running amok in the world, will there be people claiming that's what Atlas is doing?
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Old 04-06-2020, 05:11 PM   #3
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Yeah, it might be fizzling -- maybe even breaking up:

https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-se...-2019-y4-atlas

I sure hope it hangs in there -- I am really looking forward to seeing it.
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Old 04-06-2020, 08:48 PM   #4
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Spent an hour last night trying to find it with my 6" refractor - no joy. Yes, the Moonlight made the sky bright, but I was able to clearly see galaxies M81 and 82 not far away and the comet shouldn't have been much dimmer - that is until it started to fizzle the past couple days. Let's hope it holds together and starts to brighten again. Soon the Moonlight will fade and if the weather holds here in the Pacific Northwest, I'll try again.
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Old 04-06-2020, 08:56 PM   #5
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I'm hoping for a look at it. I got some pretty good pics of Hale-Bopp, Pan-Stars, Hally's, and hyakutake. This would be a nice addition.
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Old 04-15-2020, 12:56 AM   #6
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It's dead, Jim.

The comet is dead.

https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2020...f-comet-atlas/

Long live the comet!

https://spaceweathergallery.com/indi...load_id=161306

Weekly Information about Bright Comets (2020 Apr. 11: North)
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Old 04-15-2020, 09:22 AM   #7
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OK, so it broke apart. Maybe the pieces will spontaneously re-join each other?

Probably not.

That's the bad news. The good news is that we probably can't get to the dark sky back country for quite a while -- think how frustrated we'd be if there were a great comet but we could not see it due to city light pollution!!
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Old 04-15-2020, 12:37 PM   #8
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But there's another comet to replace it, hopefully coming into view at about the same time. How lucky is that?
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