Comet Atlas, burning far brighter than expected!

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: charlyv

Ooooooo, pretttyyyy.

How dare you leave that in your attic?

Thanks,
If I lived where you do, it would be permanently set up.

The seeing around Boston is actually better recently, but for reasons I would gladly forgo.

This is a 1986, double clock setup moded with electric focus and a Neximage Digital eyepiece. I like to use it with a 25mm wide-field. It is a good comet hunter. Hope I can stack some good pics. We will see.

a reply to: charlyv

That is a beauty, must of cost a fortune.
Can't wait for some pics, cheers

originally posted by: ManyMasks
a reply to: charlyv

That is a beauty, must of cost a fortune.
Can't wait for some pics, cheers

Really not that expensive.

It is old school tech, but high quality. I bought it at an estate auction years ago, and it had never been used!
Today, everyone wants "go-to" computerized scopes. This, you orient the Right Ascension and Declination manually.

It has a very accurate clock drive to compensate for the movement of the Earth. I added the focus and digital eyepiece when they became available. All in all, there is less than $1.5k invested. There are some real deals out there in older scopes.

a reply to: Phage

Thank you for that would you know the mechanism used by the comet to hold a gas cloud of such magnitude around it?

originally posted by: one4all
a reply to: ManyMasks

relax WE STILL HAVE A YEAR TO GO.

Until?

a reply to: purplemer

It doesn't "hold it."

The gas and dust which is ejected as the comet is warmed by the sun forms the coma. Some continues to fall toward the Sun (along with the nucleus) and some is swept away by the solar wind (forming the tail) and replenished as more material is ejected. It's an on ongoing process.

This comet suddenly started ejecting more material, that is why it brightened. Hopefully it will continue to do so.

a reply to: Phage

So it's gases will be spread wherever the solar wind takes it, does that mean earth could be showered by its gases, or is there no way of knowing.

a reply to: Phage

Does that mean there is an electromagnetic component to the comet and is it this component that to some extent shapes the gas cloud surrounding the comet.

a reply to: purplemer

A component, yes. Sunlight does cause ionization of gasses and those ions are affected by the magnetic field carried by the solar wind. That's why there are actually two types of tail; the dust tail and the ion tail.
spaceguard.rm.iasf.cnr.it...

originally posted by: ManyMasks
a reply to: Phage

So it's gases will be spread wherever the solar wind takes it, does that mean earth could be showered by its gases, or is there no way of knowing.

The comet does not cross Earth's orbit.

a reply to: Phage

I am trying to understand if the size of the cloud or tail has any link to the electromagnetic potency of the comet. Does for example a comet with a longer tail or bigger gas cloud mean it is has a more potent electromagnetic component and is it possible from the dust of the comet although a way off. to be able to make its way to earth on the solar winds.

Thank you

a reply to: purplemer

Does for example a comet with a longer tail or bigger gas cloud mean it is has a more potent electromagnetic component and is it possible from the dust of the comet although a way off. to be able to make its way to earth on the solar winds.

It means the comet is ejecting more dust and gas than a comet with a shorter tail or smaller coma.

If a comet crosses the ecliptic near to Earth's orbit the Earth may pass through the dust tail. That is what meteor showers are. The dust remains in orbit and the Earth passes through it each year.

a reply to: purplemer

Did you known that Atlas comes from the word atlantis
Which is cool since its basically a big ball of frozen water..... Was there not also a theory that human life came from a comet and that we are all descended from aliens by definition. Recent reports on the comet are saying it could become visible in the coming days.
Lets hope it's not front seat to the end of the world close.
Do asteroids burn Red BTW cause I still have my eye on the Hopi prophecy because in that it says pole shift and it turns out the pole has been shifting hard for a year now. www.sciencealert.com...

Records of ancient magnetic fields from extremely old rocks show that the poles can even flip - an event that has occurred an average of three times every million years.

And we are overdue a flip. Apparently

a reply to: ManyMasks

Did you known that Atlas comes from the word atlantis

You have that backwards.
But did you know that the comet is named for the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System which discovered it?
www.fallingstar.com...

Did you know that there are a whole lot of comets "named" ATLAS?
C/2015 X7 (ATLAS)
C/2017 D3 (ATLAS)
C/2017 K4 (ATLAS)
C/2017 M4 (ATLAS)
C/2017 T3 (ATLAS)
C/2018 A3 (ATLAS)
C/2018 E1 (ATLAS)
C/2018 L2 (ATLAS)
C/2018 O1 (ATLAS)
C/2018 V2 (ATLAS)
C/2019 C1 (ATLAS)
C/2019 E3 (ATLAS)
C/2019 F2 (ATLAS)
C/2019 J3 (ATLAS)
C/2019 JU6 (ATLAS)
C/2019 K1 (ATLAS)
C/2019 K8 (ATLAS)
C/2019 L3 (ATLAS)
C/2019 M3 (ATLAS)
C/2019 N1 (ATLAS)
C/2019 T3 (ATLAS)
C/2019 T4 (ATLAS)
C/2019 T5 (ATLAS)
C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS)
C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS)
C/2020 A3 (ATLAS)
C/2020 F2 (ATLAS)

ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...

And we are overdue a flip. Apparently

Geomagnetic reversals don't seem to operate on a schedule.

a reply to: Phage

That is very strange Phage, strange because after this one has made its appearance if it does, what will they call the next one? If the Asteroid terrestrial laser alert impact system discovers it that is, comet Atlas 2
Becuase in most MS reports it is called comet Atlas.

a reply to: ManyMasks

That is very strange Phage, strange because after this one has made its appearance if it does, what will they call the next one?

It is not strange and it will depend upon the discovery date of the comet.
www.minorplanetcenter.net...

originally posted by: ManyMasks
a reply to: ManyMasks
What kind of preparation would you need for something like that? A global pandemic, isolation, police, army in the streets, bunkers prepped, people prepared for the worst, hospitals ready and built quickly.... You seeing what I'm seeing.
Maybe that asteroid is going to be closer than you think.

I wondered what would happen to cruise ships if there was a hit in the Ocean. Glad most have cancelled.
. Yes, I know it's really not related but I can't help myself.

a reply to: Daughter2

Good point, have planes been grounded too?

If its going to land on earth then it must be the Atlantic, being called atlas and all that, which isn't good because the beach is 200 yards from me 😜

a reply to: ManyMasks

Was this by any chance around the year 2000, i believe it was late summer in the early evening, was a sunny day with blue skies?

Me and my friends witnessed a bright burning meteor heading North which burned up over the campsie hills leaving an absolutely massive red tinged cloud of dust / debris which lasted for at least an hour.

I suspect it was a near miss, based on the cloud it left it was a pretty big rock.

I know you live in central Scotland and i'd never seen anything like it or since so was intrigued to see if it was the same event.

a reply to: Grenade

Yeah it could have been I'm terrible with time, I said I was about 18 which would have made it 1998 but it could have been couple of years either side... I used to be up Kirkintilloch way often btw, those hills are quite amazing and would love to camp up them near that big waterfall. 👍