New Comet C/2022 F1 (ATLAS)
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).
Our confirmation image (click on the images for a bigger version)
tacking 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).
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