Comet 46P/Wirtanen
Image of periodic comet 46P/Wirtanen, obtained on 2019 Jan. 5 (20h41-21h11UT) with 15-cm, f/6 Maksutov-Cassegrain astrograph and Canon EOS 6D DSLR. Exposure time was 10x180 seconds at ISO 3200.
Copyright © 2018 by H. Mikuz, Črni Vrh Observatory.
Comet Observation database (COBS) saw first light in 2010 and is maintained by Crni Vrh Observatory. It is a free and unique service for comet observers worldwide which allows submission, display and analysis of comet data in a single location.
Amateur astronomers can make valuable contributions to comet science by observing comets and submitting their observations to COBS as professional astronomers typically do not have telescope time required to acquire regular observations. We therefore encourage comet observers worldwide to submit their observations and contribute to the COBS database.
Registered observers may submit observations using a web based form which which stores the observations in an SQL database and stores them in ICQ format. Observations may be queried and plotted in the web site or exported for further processing, analysis and publication. The database currently contains more than 238000 comet observations of more than 1200 different comets and represents the largest available database of comet observations.
The data stored in COBS is freely available to everyone who honors our data usage policy. Please cite COBS as the reference if you use it for comet studies.
Light-curve of 46P/Wirtanen (Jan 24, 2019).
Type Comet name Obs date Mag App T Pow Dia DC Tail PA Observer V 38 2019 01 23.80 10.4 25.4T 96 1.7 3 COLac V 46 2019 01 23.77 7.2: 4.0B 10 17 3/ COLac V 2018Y1 2019 01 21.25 9.3 22.0L 60 6 4 GOI V 2018Y1 2019 01 21.22 7.3 5.0B 10 15 3 GON05 V 2018Y1 2019 01 21.21 7.5 10.0B 25 15 3 GON05 V 2018A3 2019 01 21.21 14.6 60.0L 406 0.6 1 SZA V 2018Y1 2019 01 21.21 9.5 60.0L 75 3 1 SZA V 2018Y1 2019 01 21.20 9.6 25.4L 64 4 2/ MEY V 240 2019 01 21.20 15.5 60.0L 305 0.5 2 SZA V 46 2019 01 21.19 6.9 5.0B 10 25 2/ MEY V 38 2019 01 21.19 11.0 25.4L 64 2.5 2/ MEY V 2018Y1 2019 01 21.19 8.1 20.3T 77 12 3/ 0.3 290 GON05 V 123 2019 01 21.19 12.6 60.0L 244 1.3 6 SZA V 60 2019 01 21.18 14.8 60.0L 244 0.7 3 1.5m310 SZA C 46 2019 01 20.05 7.7: 25.4Y A200 14.7 2.2m210 BAMaamore...
Comet Mag Trend Observable When visible
45N 45S
46P/Wirtanen 7.5 fade 90N to 33S All night Never up
C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto) 8.5 bright 71N to 90S Early evening Best morning
64P/Swift-Gehrels 10.0 fade 90N to 62S Best evening Evening
C/2018 L2 (ATLAS) 11.0 fade 90N to 63S Evening Early evening
38P/Stephan-Oterma 11.5 fade 90N to 44S All night Never up
C/2016 M1 (PANSTARRS) 12.0 fade 11N to 90S Never up Never up
C/2016 N6 (PANSTARRS) 13.0 fade 68N to 90S Best evening Best morning
78P/Gehrels 13.5 steady 89N to 90S Evening Early evening
C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS) 13.5 fade 90N to 48S Best morning Early evening
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 13.5 steady 90N to 89S Evening Early evening
60P/Tsuchinshan 14.0 fade 85N to 90S Best morning Best morning
123P/West-Hartley 14.0 bright 90N to 61S Best morning Best morning
C/2017 M4 (ATLAS) 14.0 steady 76N to 90S Early evening Early evening
C/2018 V1 (Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto) 14.0 fade 62N to 90S Poor elongation Poor elongation
C/2018 N2 (ASASSN) 14.0 steady 62N to 90S Evening Best evening
59P/Kearns-Kwee 14.0 fade 90N to 67S Best morning Best morning
C/2015 O1 (PANSTARRS) 14.0 steady 90N to 47S Best morning Early evening
The observable region is an approximate indication of the latitude at which the comet may be seen. The period when visible is calculated for latitude 45°N and 45°S.
In the recent days, COBS website was moved to a new server.
The tiny world 2014 MU69 is far behind New Horizons now and no longer visible to its cameras. Now, New Horizons’ task is to return its precious data to Earth. The process will take 20 months, but the best images should all arrive between now and the end of February. Some early ones have come down from the spacecraft in the hours since the flyby. These are not the best we will get, but they already show us much about MU69: this is probably what comets look like, before they become comets.
CBET 4588 & MPEC 2018-Y52, issued on 2018, Dec. 20, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~12) by M. Iwamoto (MPC code 872) in images taken on 2018 Dec 18.8. The new comet has been designated C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto).
On December 13th, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope photographed comet 46P/Wirtanen, a periodic comet that orbits the Sun once every 5.4 years.
A new study reveals that, contrary to first impressions, Rosetta did detect signs of an infant bow shock at the comet it explored for two years – the first ever seen forming anywhere in the Solar System.
