1,182 days away
Dominic Ford, Editor
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Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak will make its closest approach to the Sun on 16 February, at a distance of 1.05 AU.
From Jacksonville on the day of perihelion it will be visible in the dawn sky, rising at 02:41 (EST) and reaching an altitude of 36° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 06:06.
The events that comprise the 2028 apparition of 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 16 Feb 2028 | Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak passes perihelion |
The table below lists the times when 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak will be visible from Jacksonville day-by-day through its apparition:
| Date | Constellation | Comet visibility |
| 26 Jan 2028 | Libra | Visible from 04:13 until 06:19 Highest at 06:19, 41° above SE horizon |
| 28 Jan 2028 | Libra | Visible from 04:17 until 06:18 Highest at 06:18, 41° above SE horizon |
| 30 Jan 2028 | Scorpius | Visible from 04:20 until 06:17 Highest at 06:17, 40° above SE horizon |
| 01 Feb 2028 | Scorpius | Visible from 04:23 until 06:16 Highest at 06:16, 40° above SE horizon |
| 03 Feb 2028 | Ophiuchus | Visible from 04:26 until 06:15 Highest at 06:15, 39° above SE horizon |
| 05 Feb 2028 | Ophiuchus | Visible from 04:28 until 06:14 Highest at 06:14, 38° above SE horizon |
| 07 Feb 2028 | Ophiuchus | Visible from 04:31 until 06:13 Highest at 06:13, 38° above SE horizon |
| 09 Feb 2028 | Ophiuchus | Visible from 04:33 until 06:11 Highest at 06:11, 37° above SE horizon |
| 11 Feb 2028 | Ophiuchus | Visible from 04:35 until 06:10 Highest at 06:10, 37° above SE horizon |
| 13 Feb 2028 | Ophiuchus | Visible from 04:37 until 06:09 Highest at 06:09, 37° above SE horizon |
| 15 Feb 2028 | Serpens Cauda | Visible from 04:38 until 06:07 Highest at 06:07, 36° above SE horizon |
| 17 Feb 2028 | Serpens Cauda | Visible from 04:39 until 06:05 Highest at 06:05, 36° above SE horizon |
| 19 Feb 2028 | Serpens Cauda | Visible from 04:40 until 06:04 Highest at 06:04, 35° above SE horizon |
| 21 Feb 2028 | Serpens Cauda | Visible from 04:41 until 06:02 Highest at 06:02, 35° above SE horizon |
| 23 Feb 2028 | Serpens Cauda | Visible from 04:42 until 06:00 Highest at 06:00, 35° above SE horizon |
| 25 Feb 2028 | Serpens Cauda | Visible from 04:42 until 05:58 Highest at 05:58, 34° above SE horizon |
| 27 Feb 2028 | Serpens Cauda | Visible from 04:42 until 05:56 Highest at 05:56, 34° above SE horizon |
| 29 Feb 2028 | Scutum | Visible from 04:42 until 05:54 Highest at 05:54, 34° above SE horizon |
| 02 Mar 2028 | Scutum | Visible from 04:41 until 05:52 Highest at 05:52, 34° above SE horizon |
| 04 Mar 2028 | Scutum | Visible from 04:41 until 05:50 Highest at 05:50, 34° above SE horizon |
| 06 Mar 2028 | Scutum | Visible from 04:40 until 05:47 Highest at 05:47, 33° above SE horizon |
A more detailed table of 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak is available here.
Finder chart
The chart below shows the path of 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak 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 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak is currently available.
The comet's position at perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak | 17h27m20s | 14°18'S | 11.4 |
The coordinates are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 16 Feb 2028
| The sky on 16 February 2028 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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51% 21 days old |
All times shown in EST.
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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 13 Oct 2024.
Image credit
© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.