Interstellar Snowball 3i Atlas

This has been hard work! Its a morning comet from the UK - comes into view for me about 4am - due south around 6am. It’s only the third object from outside our solar system that humans have ever seen within it. Sadly its not aliens - it’s a snowball comet but much more exciting than normal as its from another star :) NASA hope to get data on what’s there in other star systems from it.

Here’s the 3i Atlas comet stacked for an hour and a half of 1 minute frames. It was low down in Leo at the time. Headed for star 58 Leo. The stripes are the star around it during that time.

Here’s the reverse - same frames but keeping the stars still so the track of the comet over that time is apparent. Some folks have made timelapse video of the movement - I’d love to do that but need to skill up first - and I did (a bit!) see below!

Well. It was a bit of a slog but here is my hand assembled timelapse of 3i Atlas moving against the distant stars. It looks like its moving a lot faster and more than them because its so much closer - just like the planets.