How to see bright Comet ATLAS

[Anon-C]

https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-see-bright-comet-c-2019-y4-atlas

How to see bright Comet ATLAS
Posted by Eddie Irizarry in SPACE | March 27, 2020
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? Learn more here.

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.

Just know that comets are notoriously erratic and inherently unpredictable! We will have to wait to see how Comet Atlas performs.

[yonder]

1. Heard about this a month ago. Thanks for the reminder

[lapfog_1]

2. well, if it turns blood red

I guess that means "dragons" or something.

[jimlup]

3. It would be a fitting sight in the sky this summer

Not that I believe in God or anything silly like that but it would be fitting to have a bright comet in the sky this summer. A cosmic messenger of fate and death.

[burrowowl]

4. Thanks for remider

[Tommymac]

5. If I were a superstitious person...

I'd be gong all tin hat over the name...

Comet C/2019...aka the Corona Comet!

[Dios Mio]

6. Yeah

Sounds like a Netflix series with only one episode.

[kentuck]

7. I guess I'm superstitious..

I believe in signs.

[James48]

8. God sends us signs

That the idiot in the White House must lose in November.

First- God sent the plagues- and millions will fall ill and die.

Then- God sends Covid-Comet-19, as a sign that he will eradicate all Evil from the face of the earth- all the selfish, all the greedy, all the republicans, from every point of the compass, shall be stretched out and touched,

And we shall hear the shrieks, and the gnashing of teeth, and the ringing of cash registers shall be silenced across the land.