Comet ATLAS Live Stream 4-2-2020

I already answered that. As I said, outgassing from the comet will slightly perturb its orbit but not to any extent that matters as far as its approach to Earth.

That's not how this works. There doesn't need to be any other object on the other end to turn it around. It's just gravity from the sun. It turns around at the point where its radial velocity relative to the sun reaches zero, the aphelion point.

Last Edited by Astromut on 04/03/2020 08:40 AM

Let's see your calculations then. Let's see the astrometry that you used to reach that conclusion.

I'm going to do a whole video dedicated to calculating the comet's orbit and show that it will not hit Earth based on just my own observations of the comet.

Make me. I'm not going to roll over and let stupid comments pass unchallenged.

I know you were tracking the comet, but it was reported in Mars orbit 2 days ago. I expect it to be a nothing burger, but if it was something else, Mars shouldn't be unaffected.

Wish amateur astrologers would check mars out.

The corona on that thing is over half the size of the sun according to the news article and its green/blue, ie cyanide?


Basically every time a big unusual comet like that happens people are going to predict many different things, and probably have since the beginning of time. And I don't blame them.

It's at about the same distance from the sun as Mars, but it's not in Mars' orbital plane.
I'm not an astrologer, but I think you accidentally have a good idea, just not the right timing. The comet will be roughly between Mars and the sun at perihelion on May 31st, with less than a degree of separation between the comet and the sun as seen from Mars. By observing Mars that morning I can hopefully put to bed the notion that such an alignment would be disastrous for earth, though no such alignment will happen for earth with this particular comet.

I do. How many times do we have to do this before people realize that comet's aren't something to be worried about unless they're on an impact course? Siding Spring flew right by Mars and didn't do anything to it. I streamed that as well.

x

What is this bright thing in the night sky? I’m looking at it know.. it has small dots/stars around it... please look it up!

Looks like poorly recorded video of Venus or the moon.

Does Venus has small stars around from the view form earth? 5-7 dots/stars

What if a solar flare hit it?

wow

It would probably disrupt any ion tail. It wouldn't significantly impact the trajectory.

Yes, when it moves through the constellation Pleiades like it does on April 2nd.
[link to spaceweathergallery.com (secure)]

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Anything tonight? That was awesome last night. Encore. Encore

GREENLAND

Tonight I'm analyzing the data from last night and independently calculating the orbit of the comet. I'm going to try to do another show tomorrow night, if weather allows.

Interstellar Comet Borisov is no longer in one piece
By Mike Wall a day ago

[link to www.space.com (secure)]

Last Edited by SerenaSeesAll on 04/04/2020 04:00 PM

Unfortunately it's overcast here and the weather satellite shows that it will continue to be overcast through the evening. No webcast from me tonight. I'll reschedule it when I see a clear spot in the weather.

Bummer.

What is your gut feeling for max bright? Will it live to the expectations, or most likely fizzle away as the last one that promised a show that never happened?

I'm not holding my breath. I hope it lives up to the hype, but I've been disappointed by comets before and I don't want to disappointed if it pulls an ISON and fizzles out. Conversely, what that means in practical reality is that I'm trying to enjoy the comet as much as possible while it's still around to enjoy. That's why I've been streaming it every night that I can.

Last Edited by Astromut on 04/04/2020 06:11 PM

I just hope to have the chance to see it at naked eye. Years without that chance.

Thanks for your answer.

Hi Astro,

Just saw a news item that Comet Atlas is brightening up again. What do you see?

Tonight I'll probably just see clouds. Last night I tracked an ESA spacecraft, but other observatories have shown that it did indeed fragment, but it seems like the largest chunk of the original nucleus may still be going, so we'll see. There's a secondary smaller nucleus that has now separated from the main nucleus in the images from last night. Hopefully I can get images of that soon.

Ok, Astro. Will wait for ur updates.

CLYDE LEWIS HAS BEEN TALKING UP ATLAS...WHAT IS THE LATEST...IN 4 CHUNKS? DIFF TRAJECTORIES?!...UH