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

Comet 22P/Kopff passes perigee

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Comets feed

Objects: 22P/Kopff
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Comet 22P/Kopff will make its closest approach to the Earth on 25 June, at a distance of of 0.55 AU.

From Fairfield on the day of perigee it will be visible in the evening sky, becoming accessible around 21:54 (EST), 28° above your south-eastern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 23:35, 33° above your southern horizon. It will continue to be observable until around 02:18, when it sinks below 21° above your south-western horizon.

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The events that comprise the 2028 apparition of 22P/Kopff are as follows:

Date Event
25 Jun 2028Comet 22P/Kopff passes perigee
03 Jul 2028Comet 22P/Kopff reaches peak brightness
19 Jul 2028Comet 22P/Kopff passes perihelion

The table below lists the times when 22P/Kopff will be visible from Fairfield day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
04 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 22:07 until 03:55
Highest at 01:05, 35° above S horizon
06 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:59 until 03:54
Highest at 00:57, 35° above S horizon
08 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:47 until 03:47
Highest at 00:49, 35° above S horizon
10 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:49 until 03:38
Highest at 00:41, 35° above S horizon
12 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:50 until 03:30
Highest at 00:32, 35° above S horizon
14 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:51 until 03:21
Highest at 00:24, 35° above S horizon
16 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:52 until 03:12
Highest at 00:16, 34° above S horizon
18 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:53 until 03:03
Highest at 00:08, 34° above S horizon
20 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:53 until 02:50
Highest at 23:56, 34° above S horizon
22 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:54 until 02:41
Highest at 23:48, 34° above S horizon
24 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:54 until 02:31
Highest at 23:40, 33° above S horizon
26 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:54 until 02:22
Highest at 23:33, 33° above S horizon
28 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:53 until 02:13
Highest at 23:25, 33° above S horizon
30 Jun 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:53 until 02:03
Highest at 23:18, 33° above S horizon
02 Jul 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:52 until 01:54
Highest at 23:10, 32° above S horizon
04 Jul 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:52 until 01:45
Highest at 23:03, 32° above S horizon
06 Jul 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:51 until 01:35
Highest at 22:56, 32° above S horizon
08 Jul 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:50 until 01:26
Highest at 22:49, 31° above S horizon
10 Jul 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:48 until 01:17
Highest at 22:42, 31° above S horizon
12 Jul 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:47 until 01:07
Highest at 22:36, 31° above S horizon
14 Jul 2028OphiuchusVisible from 21:45 until 00:58
Highest at 22:29, 30° above S horizon

A more detailed table of 22P/Kopff's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 22P/Kopff is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of 22P/Kopff 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 22P/Kopff is currently available.

The comet's position at perigee will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet 22P/Kopff 17h02m00s 15°29'S Ophiuchus 7.5

The coordinates are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 25 Jun 2028

The sky on 25 June 2028
Sunrise
05:18
Sunset
20:29
Twilight ends
22:37
Twilight begins
03:10

3-day old moon
Waxing Crescent

15%

3 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 04:08 11:21 18:33
Venus 03:36 10:42 17:48
Moon 08:33 15:42 22:38
Mars 03:50 11:18 18:47
Jupiter 11:37 17:59 00:20
Saturn 02:16 09:02 15:48
All times shown in EDT.

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 10 Dec 2024.

Image credit

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

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Fairfield

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41.14°N
73.26°W
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