3,344 days ago
Dominic Ford, Editor
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Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) will make its closest approach to the Earth on 17 January, at a distance of of 0.72 AU.
From Cambridge on the day of perigee it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 22:06, when it reaches an altitude of 21° above your north-eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 05:52, 76° above your northern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight at around 05:57, 76° above your northern horizon.
The events that comprise the 2015–2016 apparition of C/2013 US10 (Catalina) are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 16 Nov 2015 | Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) passes perihelion |
| 08 Jan 2016 | Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) reaches peak brightness |
| 17 Jan 2016 | Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) passes perigee |
The table below lists the times when C/2013 US10 (Catalina) will be visible from Cambridge day-by-day through its apparition:
| Date | Constellation | Comet visibility |
| 27 Dec 2015 | Bootes | Visible from 02:41 until 05:57 Highest at 05:57, 51° above SE horizon |
| 29 Dec 2015 | Bootes | Visible from 02:23 until 05:58 Highest at 05:58, 55° above SE horizon |
| 31 Dec 2015 | Bootes | Visible from 02:03 until 05:58 Highest at 05:58, 58° above SE horizon |
| 02 Jan 2016 | Bootes | Visible from 01:43 until 05:59 Highest at 05:59, 62° above SE horizon |
| 04 Jan 2016 | Bootes | Visible from 01:20 until 05:59 Highest at 05:59, 67° above SE horizon |
| 06 Jan 2016 | Bootes | Visible from 00:57 until 05:59 Highest at 05:59, 71° above SE horizon |
| 08 Jan 2016 | Bootes | Visible from 00:31 until 05:59 Highest at 05:59, 76° above SE horizon |
| 10 Jan 2016 | Bootes | Visible from 00:02 until 05:59 Highest at 05:59, 80° above SE horizon |
| 12 Jan 2016 | Bootes | Visible from 23:29 until 05:58 Highest at 05:58, 85° above E horizon |
| 14 Jan 2016 | Canes Venatici | Visible from 22:52 until 05:58 Highest at 05:58, 85° above NE horizon |
| 16 Jan 2016 | Ursa Major | Visible from 22:07 until 05:57 Highest at 05:57, 81° above N horizon |
| 18 Jan 2016 | Ursa Major | Visible from 21:09 until 05:56 Highest at 05:47, 75° above N horizon |
| 20 Jan 2016 | Draco | Visible from 17:53 until 05:56 Highest at 05:29, 70° above N horizon |
| 22 Jan 2016 | Draco | Visible from 17:55 until 05:55 Highest at 05:07, 65° above N horizon |
| 24 Jan 2016 | Ursa Minor | Visible from 17:57 until 05:53 Highest at 04:37, 60° above N horizon |
| 26 Jan 2016 | Camelopardalis | Visible all night Highest at 03:55, 56° above N horizon |
| 28 Jan 2016 | Camelopardalis | Visible all night Highest at 02:49, 52° above N horizon |
| 30 Jan 2016 | Camelopardalis | Visible all night Highest at 01:07, 50° above N horizon |
| 01 Feb 2016 | Camelopardalis | Visible all night Highest at 23:01, 50° above N horizon |
| 03 Feb 2016 | Camelopardalis | Visible all night Highest at 21:24, 51° above N horizon |
| 05 Feb 2016 | Camelopardalis | Visible all night Highest at 20:22, 54° above N horizon |
A more detailed table of C/2013 US10 (Catalina)'s position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of C/2013 US10 (Catalina) is available here.
Finder chart
The chart below shows the path of C/2013 US10 (Catalina) 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 US10 (Catalina) is currently available.
The comet's position at perigee will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) | 13h53m40s | 55°46'N | 5.9 |
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.