Comet 1P/Halley will make its closest approach to the Earth on 22 April, at a distance of of 0.23 AU.
From Cambridge on the day of perigee it will not be observable because it will lie so far south that it never rises above the horizon.
The events that comprise the 1986 apparition of 1P/Halley are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 03 Mar 1986 | Comet 1P/Halley passes perihelion |
| 22 Apr 1986 | Comet 1P/Halley passes perigee |
The table below lists the times when 1P/Halley will be visible from Cambridge day-by-day through its apparition:
| Date | Constellation | Comet visibility |
| 01 Apr 1986 | Capricornus | Visible from 04:10 until 05:09 Highest at 05:09, 17° above SE horizon |
| 03 Apr 1986 | Capricornus | Visible from 04:04 until 05:05 Highest at 05:05, 17° above SE horizon |
| 05 Apr 1986 | Capricornus | Visible from 04:00 until 05:02 Highest at 05:02, 17° above SE horizon |
| 07 Apr 1986 | Capricornus | Visible from 03:56 until 04:58 Highest at 04:58, 16° above SE horizon |
| 09 Apr 1986 | Capricornus | Visible from 03:55 until 04:55 Highest at 04:55, 16° above SE horizon |
| 11 Apr 1986 | Capricornus | Visible from 03:56 until 04:52 Highest at 04:52, 14° above SE horizon |
| 13 Apr 1986 | Microscopium | Visible from 04:02 until 04:48 Highest at 04:48, 13° above SE horizon |
| 15 Apr 1986 | Sagittarius | Visible from 04:20 until 04:45 Highest at 04:45, 10° above SE horizon |
| 17 Apr 1986 | Sagittarius | Not observable |
| 19 Apr 1986 | Telescopium | Not observable |
| 21 Apr 1986 | Ara | Not observable |
| 23 Apr 1986 | Norma | Not observable |
| 25 Apr 1986 | Centaurus | Not observable |
| 27 Apr 1986 | Centaurus | Not observable |
| 29 Apr 1986 | Centaurus | Visible from 20:21 until 23:34 Highest at 21:57, 11° above S horizon |
| 01 May 1986 | Hydra | Visible from 20:04 until 00:13 Highest at 21:26, 17° above S horizon |
| 03 May 1986 | Hydra | Visible from 20:07 until 00:25 Highest at 21:03, 22° above S horizon |
| 05 May 1986 | Hydra | Visible from 20:09 until 00:28 Highest at 20:45, 26° above S horizon |
| 07 May 1986 | Hydra | Visible from 20:11 until 00:28 Highest at 20:30, 29° above S horizon |
| 09 May 1986 | Hydra | Visible from 20:14 until 00:26 Highest at 20:17, 31° above S horizon |
| 11 May 1986 | Hydra | Visible from 20:16 until 00:23 Highest at 20:16, 33° above S horizon |
A more detailed table of 1P/Halley's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 1P/Halley is available here.
Finder chart
The chart below shows the path of 1P/Halley 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 1P/Halley is currently available.
The comet's position at perigee will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet 1P/Halley | 15h48m10s | 58°26'S | Norma | 1.8 |
The coordinates are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 23 Nov 2024
| The sky on 23 November 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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34% 22 days old |
All times shown in EST.
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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 13 Oct 2024.
Image credit
© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.