4,108 days ago
Dominic Ford, Editor
From
the Comets
feed
Comet C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) is forecast to reach the brightest point in its 2014 apparition on 16 September. At that time, it will lie at a distance of 0.67 AU from the Sun, and at a distance of 0.48 AU from the Earth.
From South El Monte on 16 September it will not be observable – it will reach its highest point in the sky during daytime and will be 22° below the horizon at dawn.
The events that comprise the 2014 apparition of C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 15 Sep 2014 | Comet C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) passes perigee |
| 16 Sep 2014 | Comet C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) reaches peak brightness |
| 26 Sep 2014 | Comet C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) passes perihelion |
The table below lists the times when C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) will be visible from South El Monte day-by-day through its apparition:
| Date | Constellation | Comet visibility |
| 26 Aug 2014 | Monoceros | Visible from 05:00 until 05:17 Highest at 05:17, 25° above E horizon |
| 28 Aug 2014 | Monoceros | Visible from 05:04 until 05:19 Highest at 05:19, 25° above E horizon |
| 30 Aug 2014 | Monoceros | Visible from 05:11 until 05:21 Highest at 05:21, 24° above E horizon |
| 01 Sep 2014 | Monoceros | Visible from 05:19 until 05:22 Highest at 05:22, 22° above E horizon |
| 03 Sep 2014 | Monoceros | Not observable |
| 05 Sep 2014 | Monoceros | Not observable |
| 07 Sep 2014 | Puppis | Not observable |
| 09 Sep 2014 | Hydra | Not observable |
| 11 Sep 2014 | Pyxis | Not observable |
| 13 Sep 2014 | Antlia | Not observable |
| 15 Sep 2014 | Hydra | Not observable |
| 17 Sep 2014 | Hydra | Not observable |
| 19 Sep 2014 | Hydra | Not observable |
| 21 Sep 2014 | Centaurus | Not observable |
| 23 Sep 2014 | Centaurus | Not observable |
| 25 Sep 2014 | Centaurus | Not observable |
| 27 Sep 2014 | Hydra | Not observable |
| 29 Sep 2014 | Hydra | Not observable |
| 01 Oct 2014 | Unknown | Not observable |
| 03 Oct 2014 | Libra | Not observable |
| 05 Oct 2014 | Libra | Not observable |
A more detailed table of C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden)'s position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) is available here.
Finder chart
The chart below shows the path of C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) 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/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) is currently available.
The comet's position on 16 September 2014 will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) | 10h53m30s | 30°28'S | Hydra | 6.2 |
The coordinates are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 15 Dec 2025
| The sky on 15 December 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
12% 26 days old |
All times shown in PST.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 15 Dec 2025.
Image credit
© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.