[BAA Comets] Sudden changes on C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS)

[Peter Tickner]

Hello Nick 

Very interesting - it certainly isn't showing in my images from last night  but the first few tonight are showing it.   A small surviving nucleus perhaps?    

I'll post something from last night (and hopefully tonight) later - I'm still recovering from observing a difficult 03:57 UT occultation that didn't in the end happen this morning!

Peter  

-----Original Message-----
From: Comets-disc [mailto:comets-disc-bounces at lists.britastro.org] On Behalf Of Nick James
Sent: 09 April 2020 21:42
To: BAA Comets discussion list
Subject: Re: [BAA Comets] Sudden changes on C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS)

Evening all,

I've just started imaging this comet tonight and there is a small condensation now right emerging from the front of the extended coma. 
This also appears in Gianluca Masi's image from tonight. Interestingly if you do astrometry on this condensation it is within 2 arcsec (just under 2 pixels at this scale) of the expected nucleus position based on the orbit using data up to March 25.

This is only a short stack. I'll have better data later if the weather cooperates.

Nick.