Comet 46P/Wirtanen will make its closest approach to the Sun on 21 November, at a distance of 1.05 AU.
From Cambridge on the day of perihelion it will be visible in the dawn sky, rising at 23:00 (EDT) and reaching an altitude of 57° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:32.
The events that comprise the 1980 apparition of 46P/Wirtanen are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 06 Nov 1980 | Comet 46P/Wirtanen passes perigee |
| 13 Nov 1980 | Comet 46P/Wirtanen reaches peak brightness |
| 21 Nov 1980 | Comet 46P/Wirtanen passes perihelion |
The table below lists the times when 46P/Wirtanen will be visible from Cambridge day-by-day through its apparition:
| Date | Constellation | Comet visibility |
| 31 Oct 1980 | Canis Minor | Visible from 00:37 until 05:09 Highest at 04:55, 50° above S horizon |
| 02 Nov 1980 | Canis Minor | Visible from 00:39 until 05:11 Highest at 05:00, 51° above S horizon |
| 04 Nov 1980 | Hydra | Visible from 00:40 until 05:13 Highest at 05:05, 52° above S horizon |
| 06 Nov 1980 | Hydra | Visible from 00:42 until 05:16 Highest at 05:09, 52° above S horizon |
| 08 Nov 1980 | Hydra | Visible from 00:43 until 05:18 Highest at 05:14, 53° above S horizon |
| 10 Nov 1980 | Hydra | Visible from 00:45 until 05:20 Highest at 05:19, 54° above S horizon |
| 12 Nov 1980 | Cancer | Visible from 00:46 until 05:22 Highest at 05:22, 55° above S horizon |
| 14 Nov 1980 | Cancer | Visible from 00:48 until 05:25 Highest at 05:25, 55° above S horizon |
| 16 Nov 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:49 until 05:27 Highest at 05:27, 56° above S horizon |
| 18 Nov 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:50 until 05:29 Highest at 05:29, 57° above S horizon |
| 20 Nov 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:51 until 05:31 Highest at 05:31, 57° above S horizon |
| 22 Nov 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:52 until 05:33 Highest at 05:33, 58° above S horizon |
| 24 Nov 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:52 until 05:35 Highest at 05:35, 58° above S horizon |
| 26 Nov 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:53 until 05:37 Highest at 05:37, 59° above S horizon |
| 28 Nov 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:53 until 05:39 Highest at 05:39, 60° above S horizon |
| 30 Nov 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:53 until 05:41 Highest at 05:41, 60° above S horizon |
| 02 Dec 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:52 until 05:43 Highest at 05:43, 61° above S horizon |
| 04 Dec 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:51 until 05:45 Highest at 05:45, 61° above S horizon |
| 06 Dec 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:50 until 05:47 Highest at 05:47, 62° above S horizon |
| 08 Dec 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:49 until 05:48 Highest at 05:48, 62° above S horizon |
| 10 Dec 1980 | Leo | Visible from 00:48 until 05:50 Highest at 05:47, 63° above S horizon |
A more detailed table of 46P/Wirtanen's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 46P/Wirtanen is available here.
Finder chart
The chart below shows the path of 46P/Wirtanen 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 46P/Wirtanen is currently available.
The comet's position at perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet 46P/Wirtanen | 09h58m40s | 10°06'N | Leo | 6.7 |
The coordinates are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 20 Apr 2024
| The sky on 20 April 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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91% 12 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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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 28 Mar 2024.
Image credit
© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.