Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS - C/2025 N1 (ATLAS)

[Pierre_C]

ABC are reporting on a newly discovered interstellar object / comet – https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/...stem/105489180

NASA article - https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/plane...-solar-system/

IAU Minor Planet Centre circular - https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K25/K25N12.html

Early data suggest it is currently at magnitude 17 in the constellation Sagittarius.

[Dennis]

Found it!

I went to bed believing that this object was too faint for my system, with PixInsight crashing as I tried to process the frames.

This was on top the The Sky X freezing when frames were being downloaded from the ASI 2600 MM Duo using the X2 Plug In and the native ZWO Drivers, all freshly installed from the ZWO website.

This morning, I tried again using CCDSoft to Calibrate, Register and Stack the 30x60 sec exposures, with the Stack Mode set to Maximum and Voilà – there she was.

Tak Mewlon 210 F11.5
Tak x0.8 Reducer/Flattener
ASI 2600 MM Duo

A Plate Solve calculated the imaging system to be F/10 at 2100mm.
Pixel scale: 0.742 arcsec/pixel

Dennis.

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

Fabulous result, Dennis.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by Tinderboxsky

Fabulous result, Dennis.

Thanks Steve – I also managed to figure out why PixInsight was crashing – user error!

In the File List, I noticed a couple of files that had an additional “process” letter in the filename and when I removed them, PI worked just fine. I guess that is why we should not be processing at 2:00am!

I managed to combine 2 sets of images (straddling 10:30pm and Midnight) that show the trail of C/2025 N1, as shown in the red circles.

It is a bit ugly, due to compression to get the file size below 200KB.

Dennis

[Derek Klepp]

Always enjoy these Dennis well done.

[Dennis]

Thanks Derek, I appreciate your comments.

A big lesson learned last night.
Do not:

• Update The Sky X Pro with the latest build.
• Update the TSX X2 Adapter Plug In.
• Update the ZWO Camera Driver
• Update the ZWO ASCOM Driver
• Update the PrimeluceLab PLAY SW
• Update the PrimeluceLab ESATTO Focuser
• Update the Pegasus Unity SW
• Update the Pegasus Power Box

All in the same session, live, outdoors, on the fly without first doing a disturbed system test indoors during the daytime.
Cheers

Dennis.

Originally Posted by Derek Klepp

Always enjoy these Dennis well done.

[Pierre_C]

Well done, Dennis.

It is nice seeing your early images of the interstellar traveller.