Mouseover Image Below for Effect
The fragmentation images were taken April 16, 2020 under poor seeing conditions after a cold front passed with Comet Atlas only 30-35 degrees up from Florida. Forty-three two-minute unbinned images were taken with a 0.37M RCOS telescope with SBIG 16803 CCD camera and stacked. The mouseover images are composed of the 11 images when seeing was best; the image below the mouseover consists of all 43 images stacked aligned on the larger of the comet nuclei. A comparison 40 minute LRGB exposure taken with the same equipment March 21 when Comet Atlas was bright pre-fragmentation.
Above: Disintegrating Comet Atlas at Moments of Good Seeing (Arrows)
