© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.

Comet C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) passes perigee

Dominic Ford, Editor
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The sky at

Comet C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) will make its closest approach to the Earth on 14 November, at a distance of of 0.36 AU.

From Fairfield on the day of perigee it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 21:23, when it reaches an altitude of 21° above your eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 01:40, 52° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 05:29, 26° above your western horizon.

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The events that comprise the 2020 apparition of C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) are as follows:

Date Event
25 Oct 2020Comet C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) passes perihelion
09 Nov 2020Comet C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) reaches peak brightness
14 Nov 2020Comet C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) passes perigee

The table below lists the times when C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) will be visible from Fairfield day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
24 Oct 2020LepusVisible from 01:28 until 06:02
Highest at 03:45, 30° above S horizon
26 Oct 2020LepusVisible from 01:09 until 06:09
Highest at 03:40, 32° above S horizon
28 Oct 2020LepusVisible from 00:51 until 06:11
Highest at 03:35, 34° above S horizon
30 Oct 2020LepusVisible from 00:33 until 06:13
Highest at 03:29, 36° above S horizon
01 Nov 2020LepusVisible from 00:15 until 05:15
Highest at 02:23, 38° above S horizon
03 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 22:57 until 05:17
Highest at 02:17, 40° above S horizon
05 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 22:39 until 05:19
Highest at 02:11, 42° above S horizon
07 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 22:21 until 05:22
Highest at 02:04, 45° above S horizon
09 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 22:04 until 05:24
Highest at 01:57, 47° above S horizon
11 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 21:47 until 05:26
Highest at 01:51, 50° above S horizon
13 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 21:29 until 05:28
Highest at 01:43, 52° above S horizon
15 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 21:12 until 05:30
Highest at 01:36, 55° above S horizon
17 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 20:55 until 05:32
Highest at 01:28, 58° above S horizon
19 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 20:38 until 05:34
Highest at 01:21, 60° above S horizon
21 Nov 2020OrionVisible from 20:21 until 05:36
Highest at 01:13, 63° above S horizon
23 Nov 2020TaurusVisible from 20:04 until 05:38
Highest at 01:05, 66° above S horizon
25 Nov 2020TaurusVisible from 19:48 until 05:40
Highest at 00:56, 68° above S horizon
27 Nov 2020TaurusVisible from 19:32 until 05:42
Highest at 00:48, 70° above S horizon
29 Nov 2020TaurusVisible from 19:15 until 05:44
Highest at 00:39, 73° above S horizon
01 Dec 2020TaurusVisible from 19:00 until 05:46
Highest at 00:31, 75° above S horizon
03 Dec 2020TaurusVisible from 18:44 until 05:48
Highest at 00:22, 77° above S horizon

A more detailed table of C/2020 M3 (ATLAS)'s position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) over the course of its apparition, as calculated from the orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC). It is available for download, either on dark background, in PNG, PDF or SVG formats, or on a light background, in PNG, PDF or SVG formats. It was produced using StarCharter.

Comet brightnesses

Comets are intrinsically highly unpredictable objects, since their brightness depends on the scattering of sunlight from dust particles in the comet's coma and tail. This dust is continually streaming away from the comet's nucleus, and its density at any particular time is governed by the rate of sublimation of the ice in the comet's nucleus, as it is heated by the Sun's rays. It also depends on the amount of dust that is mixed in with that ice. This is very difficult to predict in advance, and can be highly variable even between successive apparitions of the same comet.

In consequence, while the future positions of comets are usually known with a high degree of confidence, their future brightnesses are not. For most comets, we do not publish any magnitude estimates at all. For the few comets where we do make estimates, we generally prefer the BAA's magnitude parameters to those published by the Minor Planet Center, since they are typically updated more often.

No estimate for the brightness of comet C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) is currently available.

The comet's position at perigee will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) 05h22m30s 4°05'N Orion 8.3

The coordinates are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 14 Nov 2020

The sky on 14 November 2020
Sunrise
06:37
Sunset
16:34
Twilight ends
18:09
Twilight begins
05:02

29-day old moon
Waning Crescent

0%

29 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:02 10:26 15:51
Venus 03:57 09:37 15:17
Moon 05:39 11:08 16:28
Mars 14:50 21:10 03:31
Jupiter 11:13 15:54 20:35
Saturn 11:26 16:10 20:55
All times shown in EST.

Source

This event was automatically generated on the basis of orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) , and is updated whenever new elements become available. It was last updated on 02 Jan 2024.

Image credit

© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.

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Fairfield

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Longitude:
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41.14°N
73.26°W
EDT

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