CBET 5112 & MPEC 2022-G82, issued on 2022, April 06, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~18.5) on CCD images taken on Mar. 30.3 UT with a 0.5-m f/2 Wright-Schmidt reflector at Rio Hurtado, Chile, in the course of the "Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System" (ATLAS) search program. The new comet has been designated C/2022 F1 (ATLAS).
Stacking of 20 unfiltered exposures, 90 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2022, April 2.4 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 9" arcsecond in diameter (Observers E. Bryssinck, M. Rocchetto, E. Guido, M. Fulle, G. Milani, G. Savini, A. Valvasori).
Our confirmation image (click on the images for a bigger version)
CBET 5112 assigns the following parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2022 F1 (ATLAS): T 2022 Sep. 4.00; e= 0.99; Peri. = 281.10; q = 5.94 ; Incl.= 57.98; adding that: "these suggest that the comet will pass 1.46 AU from Saturn in 2025 August".
by Ernesto Guido
