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

Comet 141P/Machholz passes perihelion

Dominic Ford, Editor
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Comet 141P/Machholz will make its closest approach to the Sun on 2 December, at a distance of 0.81 AU.

From Cambridge on the day of perihelion it will become visible at around 17:25 (EDT), 29° above your south-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 20:41.

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 2004–2005 apparition of 141P/Machholz are as follows:

Date Event
02 Dec 2004Comet 141P/Machholz passes perihelion

The table below lists the times when 141P/Machholz will be visible from Cambridge day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
11 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:35 until 18:35
Highest at 17:35, 30° above SW horizon
13 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:34 until 18:33
Highest at 17:34, 30° above SW horizon
15 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:32 until 18:31
Highest at 17:32, 30° above SW horizon
17 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:31 until 18:29
Highest at 17:31, 30° above SW horizon
19 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:30 until 18:28
Highest at 17:30, 30° above SW horizon
21 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:28 until 18:27
Highest at 17:28, 30° above SW horizon
23 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:27 until 18:26
Highest at 17:27, 30° above SW horizon
25 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:27 until 18:25
Highest at 17:27, 30° above SW horizon
27 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:26 until 18:24
Highest at 17:26, 30° above SW horizon
29 Nov 2004AquilaVisible from 17:25 until 18:23
Highest at 17:25, 29° above SW horizon
01 Dec 2004CapricornusVisible from 17:25 until 18:23
Highest at 17:25, 29° above SW horizon
03 Dec 2004CapricornusVisible from 17:25 until 18:23
Highest at 17:25, 29° above SW horizon
05 Dec 2004CapricornusVisible from 17:25 until 18:23
Highest at 17:25, 29° above SW horizon
07 Dec 2004AquariusVisible from 17:25 until 18:23
Highest at 17:25, 29° above SW horizon
09 Dec 2004AquariusVisible from 17:25 until 18:23
Highest at 17:25, 29° above SW horizon
11 Dec 2004AquariusVisible from 17:25 until 18:24
Highest at 17:25, 29° above SW horizon
13 Dec 2004AquariusVisible from 17:25 until 18:26
Highest at 17:25, 29° above SW horizon
15 Dec 2004CapricornusVisible from 17:26 until 18:27
Highest at 17:26, 29° above SW horizon
17 Dec 2004CapricornusVisible from 17:27 until 18:30
Highest at 17:27, 29° above SW horizon
19 Dec 2004CapricornusVisible from 17:28 until 18:33
Highest at 17:28, 29° above SW horizon
21 Dec 2004AquariusVisible from 17:28 until 18:37
Highest at 17:28, 29° above SW horizon

A more detailed table of 141P/Machholz's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 141P/Machholz is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of 141P/Machholz 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 141P/Machholz is currently available.

The comet's position at perihelion will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet 141P/Machholz 20h20m50s 10°24'S Capricornus 8.6

The coordinates are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 29 Mar 2024

The sky on 29 March 2024
Sunrise
06:29
Sunset
19:06
Twilight ends
20:43
Twilight begins
04:53

19-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

79%

19 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 06:54 13:46 20:38
Venus 05:59 11:45 17:31
Moon 22:47 03:35 08:15
Mars 05:20 10:43 16:05
Jupiter 08:06 15:10 22:14
Saturn 05:41 11:14 16:47
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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Cambridge

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42.38°N
71.11°W
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