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

Comet 2P/Encke passes perihelion

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Comets feed

Objects: 2P/Encke
Please wait
Loading 0/4
Click and drag to rotate
Mouse wheel to zoom in/out
Touch with mouse to dismiss
The sky at

Comet 2P/Encke will make its closest approach to the Sun on 14 April, at a distance of 0.34 AU.

From Ashburn on the day of perihelion it will not be readily observable since it will be very close to the Sun, at a separation of only 16° from it.

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 2007 apparition of 2P/Encke are as follows:

Date Event
14 Apr 2007Comet 2P/Encke passes perihelion
03 May 2007Comet 2P/Encke passes perigee

The table below lists the times when 2P/Encke will be visible from Ashburn day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
24 Mar 2007PiscesNot observable
26 Mar 2007PiscesNot observable
28 Mar 2007AriesNot observable
30 Mar 2007AriesNot observable
01 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
03 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
05 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
07 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
09 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
11 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
13 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
15 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
17 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
19 Apr 2007AriesNot observable
21 Apr 2007CetusNot observable
23 Apr 2007CetusNot observable
25 Apr 2007PiscesNot observable
27 Apr 2007CetusNot observable
29 Apr 2007CetusNot observable
01 May 2007CetusNot observable
03 May 2007CetusNot observable

A more detailed table of 2P/Encke's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 2P/Encke is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of 2P/Encke 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 2P/Encke is currently available.

The comet's position at perihelion will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet 2P/Encke 02h34m00s 14°17'N Aries 5.2

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

83%

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.

Warning

Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.

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.

Share

Ashburn

Latitude:
Longitude:
Timezone:

39.04°N
77.49°W
EDT

Color scheme