135P/Shoemaker-Levy (0135P)

TRY AGAIN 2028

Type: Periodic Perihelion date: 7 April 2022 Perihelion distance (q): 2.7 Aphelion distance (Q) : 4.9 Period (years): 7.4 Eccentricity (e): 0.29 Inclination (i): 6.1 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve This comet was discovered by Carolyn S. and Eugene M. Shoemaker and David H. Levy on photographic plates exposed with the 0.46-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory on 5 April 1992. The magnitude was determined as 17.0 and there was possibly a very faint tail towards the west. This team obtained confirming images on 7 and 8 April. A few days after the discovery announcement, A. Savage (Siding Spring, Australia) found a prediscovery image obtained on a plate exposed with the 1.2-m U.K. Schmidt on 30 March. It revealed a tail extending 30 arc seconds to the northwest. The comet was recovered on 22 January 1998 by C. W. Hergenrother. He was using the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's 1.2-m reflector at Mt. Hopkins. The magnitude was given as between 21.7 and 22.0. Hergenrother confirmed the comet with the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's 1.5-m reflector at the Catalina station on 28 January. He said the coma appeared moderately diffuse and 5 arc seconds across. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 28-Jan-20 19.28 0.01 18.5 0.2