Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle is forecast to reach the brightest point in its 1997 apparition on 29 December. At that time, it will lie at a distance of 1.05 AU from the Sun, and at a distance of 0.22 AU from the Earth.
From Cambridge on 29 December it will be very well placed – it will be close enough to the north celestial pole that it will be high above the horizon all night.
The events that comprise the 1997–1998 apparition of 55P/Tempel-Tuttle are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 29 Dec 1997 | Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle reaches peak brightness |
| 22 Jan 1998 | Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle passes perihelion |
The table below lists the times when 55P/Tempel-Tuttle will be visible from Cambridge day-by-day through its apparition:
| Date | Constellation | Comet visibility |
| 08 Dec 1997 | Coma Berenices | Visible from 01:24 until 05:47 Highest at 05:47, 67° above SE horizon |
| 10 Dec 1997 | Coma Berenices | Visible from 01:13 until 05:49 Highest at 05:49, 69° above SE horizon |
| 12 Dec 1997 | Coma Berenices | Visible from 01:01 until 05:50 Highest at 05:50, 72° above SE horizon |
| 14 Dec 1997 | Coma Berenices | Visible from 00:48 until 05:52 Highest at 05:52, 74° above SE horizon |
| 16 Dec 1997 | Coma Berenices | Visible from 00:33 until 05:53 Highest at 05:53, 77° above SE horizon |
| 18 Dec 1997 | Canes Venatici | Visible from 00:16 until 05:54 Highest at 05:54, 81° above SE horizon |
| 20 Dec 1997 | Canes Venatici | Visible from 23:55 until 05:55 Highest at 05:55, 85° above SE horizon |
| 22 Dec 1997 | Canes Venatici | Visible from 23:23 until 05:56 Highest at 05:56, 85° above NE horizon |
| 24 Dec 1997 | Ursa Major | Visible from 22:27 until 05:57 Highest at 05:57, 76° above N horizon |
| 26 Dec 1997 | Draco | Visible from 17:32 until 05:58 Highest at 05:58, 64° above N horizon |
| 28 Dec 1997 | Ursa Minor | Visible all night Highest at 05:59, 46° above N horizon |
| 30 Dec 1997 | Cepheus | Visible from 17:34 until 05:59 Highest at 17:34, 58° above N horizon |
| 01 Jan 1998 | Andromeda | Visible from 17:36 until 00:17 Highest at 17:36, 74° above NW horizon |
| 03 Jan 1998 | Andromeda | Visible from 17:38 until 23:08 Highest at 17:38, 77° above W horizon |
| 05 Jan 1998 | Pegasus | Visible from 17:39 until 22:27 Highest at 17:39, 71° above SW horizon |
| 07 Jan 1998 | Pegasus | Visible from 17:41 until 21:57 Highest at 17:41, 65° above SW horizon |
| 09 Jan 1998 | Pegasus | Visible from 17:43 until 21:33 Highest at 17:43, 60° above SW horizon |
| 11 Jan 1998 | Pegasus | Visible from 17:45 until 21:13 Highest at 17:45, 56° above SW horizon |
| 13 Jan 1998 | Pegasus | Visible from 17:47 until 20:55 Highest at 17:47, 52° above SW horizon |
| 15 Jan 1998 | Pisces | Visible from 17:49 until 20:38 Highest at 17:49, 49° above SW horizon |
| 17 Jan 1998 | Pisces | Visible from 17:51 until 20:24 Highest at 17:51, 47° above SW horizon |
A more detailed table of 55P/Tempel-Tuttle's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 55P/Tempel-Tuttle is available here.
Finder chart
The chart below shows the path of 55P/Tempel-Tuttle 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 55P/Tempel-Tuttle is currently available.
The comet's position on 29 December 1997 will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle | 22h11m00s | 72°56'N | Cepheus | 5.8 |
The coordinates are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 4 Apr 2025
| The sky on 4 April 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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48% 6 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 23 Feb 2025.
Image credit
© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.