4,892 days ago
Dominic Ford, Editor
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Comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) will make its closest approach to the Earth on 22 October, at a distance of of 0.17 AU.
From Cambridge on the day of perigee it will be visible in the dawn sky, rising at 23:42 (EDT) and reaching an altitude of 64° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:56.
The events that comprise the 2011 apparition of C/2010 X1 (Elenin) are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 15 Sep 2011 | Comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) passes perihelion |
| 15 Oct 2011 | Comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) reaches peak brightness |
| 22 Oct 2011 | Comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) passes perigee |
The table below lists the times when C/2010 X1 (Elenin) will be visible from Cambridge day-by-day through its apparition:
| Date | Constellation | Comet visibility |
| 01 Oct 2011 | Virgo | Not observable |
| 03 Oct 2011 | Virgo | Not observable |
| 05 Oct 2011 | Virgo | Not observable |
| 07 Oct 2011 | Virgo | Not observable |
| 09 Oct 2011 | Virgo | Not observable |
| 11 Oct 2011 | Virgo | Not observable |
| 13 Oct 2011 | Leo | Not observable |
| 15 Oct 2011 | Leo | Visible from 05:07 until 05:48 Highest at 05:48, 25° above E horizon |
| 17 Oct 2011 | Leo | Visible from 04:14 until 05:50 Highest at 05:50, 35° above E horizon |
| 19 Oct 2011 | Leo | Visible from 03:15 until 05:55 Highest at 05:55, 46° above E horizon |
| 21 Oct 2011 | Leo | Visible from 02:13 until 06:00 Highest at 06:00, 57° above E horizon |
| 23 Oct 2011 | Cancer | Visible from 01:09 until 06:03 Highest at 06:03, 68° above SE horizon |
| 25 Oct 2011 | Gemini | Visible from 00:08 until 06:05 Highest at 06:05, 77° above SE horizon |
| 27 Oct 2011 | Gemini | Visible from 23:12 until 06:07 Highest at 05:46, 81° above S horizon |
| 29 Oct 2011 | Gemini | Visible from 22:25 until 06:07 Highest at 04:58, 81° above S horizon |
| 31 Oct 2011 | Auriga | Visible from 21:46 until 06:07 Highest at 04:16, 81° above S horizon |
| 02 Nov 2011 | Auriga | Visible from 21:14 until 06:08 Highest at 03:39, 80° above S horizon |
| 04 Nov 2011 | Auriga | Visible from 20:48 until 06:11 Highest at 03:06, 80° above S horizon |
| 06 Nov 2011 | Auriga | Visible from 20:26 until 05:13 Highest at 01:37, 79° above S horizon |
| 08 Nov 2011 | Taurus | Visible from 19:08 until 05:15 Highest at 01:12, 78° above S horizon |
| 10 Nov 2011 | Taurus | Visible from 18:53 until 05:17 Highest at 00:50, 77° above S horizon |
A more detailed table of C/2010 X1 (Elenin)'s position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of C/2010 X1 (Elenin) is available here.
Finder chart
The chart below shows the path of C/2010 X1 (Elenin) 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 C/2010 X1 (Elenin) is currently available.
The comet's position at perigee will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) | 09h00m00s | 27°55'N | Cancer | 4.2 |
The coordinates are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 14 Mar 2025
| The sky on 14 March 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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99% 14 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.