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

Comet 81P/Wild passes perihelion

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Comets feed

Objects: 81P/Wild
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Comet 81P/Wild will make its closest approach to the Sun on 14 February, at a distance of 1.60 AU.

From Washington on the day of perihelion it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 01:28, when it reaches an altitude of 21° above your south-eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 05:03, 43° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 06:20, 40° above your south-western horizon.

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 2010 apparition of 81P/Wild are as follows:

Date Event
14 Feb 2010Comet 81P/Wild passes perihelion

The table below lists the times when 81P/Wild will be visible from Washington day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
24 Jan 2010VirgoVisible from 01:55 until 06:36
Highest at 05:40, 47° above S horizon
26 Jan 2010VirgoVisible from 01:52 until 06:35
Highest at 05:37, 46° above S horizon
28 Jan 2010VirgoVisible from 01:50 until 06:34
Highest at 05:33, 46° above S horizon
30 Jan 2010VirgoVisible from 01:47 until 06:33
Highest at 05:29, 46° above S horizon
01 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:45 until 06:31
Highest at 05:26, 46° above S horizon
03 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:42 until 06:30
Highest at 05:22, 45° above S horizon
05 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:39 until 06:28
Highest at 05:18, 45° above S horizon
07 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:36 until 06:26
Highest at 05:14, 45° above S horizon
09 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:33 until 06:25
Highest at 05:10, 45° above S horizon
11 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:30 until 06:23
Highest at 05:06, 44° above S horizon
13 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:26 until 06:21
Highest at 05:02, 44° above S horizon
15 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:23 until 06:19
Highest at 04:58, 44° above S horizon
17 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:19 until 06:16
Highest at 04:53, 44° above S horizon
19 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:15 until 06:14
Highest at 04:49, 44° above S horizon
21 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:11 until 06:12
Highest at 04:44, 44° above S horizon
23 Feb 2010VirgoVisible from 01:07 until 06:09
Highest at 04:39, 44° above S horizon
25 Feb 2010LibraVisible from 01:03 until 06:07
Highest at 04:35, 43° above S horizon
27 Feb 2010LibraVisible from 00:58 until 06:04
Highest at 04:30, 43° above S horizon
01 Mar 2010LibraVisible from 00:53 until 06:02
Highest at 04:24, 43° above S horizon
03 Mar 2010LibraVisible from 00:48 until 05:59
Highest at 04:19, 43° above S horizon
05 Mar 2010LibraVisible from 00:43 until 05:56
Highest at 04:14, 43° above S horizon

A more detailed table of 81P/Wild's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 81P/Wild is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of 81P/Wild 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 81P/Wild is currently available.

The comet's position at perihelion will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet 81P/Wild 14h06m30s 8°52'S Virgo 8.9

The coordinates are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
07:22
Sunset
19:52
Twilight ends
21:21
Twilight begins
05:54

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

86%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:55 14:38 21:20
Venus 06:47 12:34 18:22
Moon 22:26 03:44 08:54
Mars 06:04 11:33 17:02
Jupiter 09:10 16:03 22:56
Saturn 06:29 12:06 17:44
All times shown in MDT.

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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Washington

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37.13°N
113.51°W
MDT

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