© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.

Comet 88P/Howell passes perihelion

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Comets feed

Objects: 88P/Howell
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Comet 88P/Howell will make its closest approach to the Sun on 24 May, at a distance of 1.36 AU.

From Columbus on the day of perihelion it will not be observable – it will reach its highest point in the sky during daytime and will be no higher than 18° above the horizon at dawn.

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The events that comprise the 1982 apparition of 88P/Howell are as follows:

Date Event
24 May 1982Comet 88P/Howell passes perihelion

The table below lists the times when 88P/Howell will be visible from Columbus day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
03 May 1982CapricornusNot observable
05 May 1982CapricornusNot observable
07 May 1982AquariusNot observable
09 May 1982AquariusNot observable
11 May 1982AquariusNot observable
13 May 1982AquariusNot observable
15 May 1982AquariusNot observable
17 May 1982AquariusNot observable
19 May 1982AquariusNot observable
21 May 1982AquariusNot observable
23 May 1982AquariusNot observable
25 May 1982AquariusNot observable
27 May 1982AquariusNot observable
29 May 1982AquariusNot observable
31 May 1982AquariusNot observable
02 Jun 1982AquariusNot observable
04 Jun 1982AquariusNot observable
06 Jun 1982AquariusNot observable
08 Jun 1982AquariusVisible from 04:37 until 04:41
Highest at 04:41, 23° above SE horizon
10 Jun 1982AquariusVisible from 04:33 until 04:41
Highest at 04:41, 23° above SE horizon
12 Jun 1982AquariusVisible from 04:28 until 04:40
Highest at 04:40, 24° above SE horizon

A more detailed table of 88P/Howell's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 88P/Howell is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of 88P/Howell 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 88P/Howell is currently available.

The comet's position at perihelion will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet 88P/Howell 22h55m10s 12°01'S Aquarius 7.9

The coordinates are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 26 Jun 2024

The sky on 26 June 2024
Sunrise
06:02
Sunset
21:04
Twilight ends
23:07
Twilight begins
03:59

20-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

70%

20 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:02 14:33 22:04
Venus 06:29 13:59 21:29
Moon 00:12 05:31 10:59
Mars 02:58 09:52 16:46
Jupiter 04:14 11:31 18:49
Saturn 00:52 06:34 12:17
All times shown in EDT.

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 27 Apr 2024.

Image credit

© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.

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Columbus

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Longitude:
Timezone:

39.96°N
83.00°W
EDT

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