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

Comet 15P/Finlay reaches peak brightness

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Comets feed

Objects: 15P/Finlay
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Comet 15P/Finlay is forecast to reach the brightest point in its 2001 apparition on 5 November. At that time, it will lie at a distance of 1.01 AU from the Sun, and at a distance of 0.41 AU from the Earth.

From Ashburn on 5 November it will become visible at around 18:10 (EDT), 32° above your southern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 22:39.

Begin typing the name of a town near to you, and then select the town from the list of options which appear below.

The events that comprise the 2001 apparition of 15P/Finlay are as follows:

Date Event
22 Oct 2001Comet 15P/Finlay passes perihelion
05 Nov 2001Comet 15P/Finlay reaches peak brightness
17 Nov 2001Comet 15P/Finlay passes perigee

The table below lists the times when 15P/Finlay will be visible from Ashburn day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
15 Oct 2001SagittariusNot observable
17 Oct 2001SagittariusVisible from 19:32 until 19:40
Highest at 19:32, 21° above S horizon
19 Oct 2001SagittariusVisible from 19:29 until 19:52
Highest at 19:29, 22° above S horizon
21 Oct 2001SagittariusVisible from 19:27 until 20:03
Highest at 19:27, 23° above S horizon
23 Oct 2001SagittariusVisible from 19:24 until 20:15
Highest at 19:24, 24° above S horizon
25 Oct 2001SagittariusVisible from 19:22 until 20:27
Highest at 19:22, 25° above S horizon
27 Oct 2001SagittariusVisible from 19:19 until 20:40
Highest at 19:19, 26° above S horizon
29 Oct 2001SagittariusVisible from 18:17 until 19:52
Highest at 18:17, 28° above S horizon
31 Oct 2001SagittariusVisible from 18:15 until 20:05
Highest at 18:15, 29° above S horizon
02 Nov 2001CapricornusVisible from 18:13 until 20:18
Highest at 18:13, 31° above S horizon
04 Nov 2001CapricornusVisible from 18:11 until 20:31
Highest at 18:11, 32° above S horizon
06 Nov 2001CapricornusVisible from 18:09 until 20:44
Highest at 18:09, 34° above S horizon
08 Nov 2001CapricornusVisible from 18:07 until 20:58
Highest at 18:07, 36° above S horizon
10 Nov 2001AquariusVisible from 18:06 until 21:11
Highest at 18:06, 38° above S horizon
12 Nov 2001AquariusVisible from 18:04 until 21:25
Highest at 18:04, 40° above S horizon
14 Nov 2001AquariusVisible from 18:03 until 21:38
Highest at 18:03, 42° above S horizon
16 Nov 2001AquariusVisible from 18:02 until 21:51
Highest at 18:02, 43° above S horizon
18 Nov 2001AquariusVisible from 18:01 until 22:04
Highest at 18:07, 45° above S horizon
20 Nov 2001AquariusVisible from 18:00 until 22:17
Highest at 18:13, 47° above S horizon
22 Nov 2001AquariusVisible from 17:59 until 22:29
Highest at 18:18, 49° above S horizon
24 Nov 2001AquariusVisible from 17:58 until 22:41
Highest at 18:23, 51° above S horizon

A more detailed table of 15P/Finlay's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 15P/Finlay is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of 15P/Finlay 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 15P/Finlay is currently available.

The comet's position on 5 November 2001 will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet 15P/Finlay 20h25m50s 17°26'S Capricornus 6.3

The coordinates are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:58
Sunset
19:29
Twilight ends
21:00
Twilight begins
05:27

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

84%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:29 14:14 20:59
Venus 06:24 12:10 17:56
Moon 22:00 03:15 08:23
Mars 05:43 11:09 16:35
Jupiter 08:42 15:39 22:36
Saturn 06:07 11:43 17:19
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 02 Jan 2024.

Image credit

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

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