C/2012 Y3 (McNaught)

DEPARTED

Type: Periodic Perihelion date: 25 August 2012 Perihelion distance (q): 1.8 Aphelion distance (Q) : 57.0 Period (years): 159 Eccentricity (e): 0.94 Inclination (i): 73.2 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve Rob McNaught discovered a 15th magnitude comet on CCD images taken with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring on 30 December 2012. The comet was at perihelion at 1.8 AU in August, when it might have been around 13th magnitude. This was the 100th comet discovered by the Siding Spring search programme. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 06-Jan-13 15.96 0.02 14.4 0.4 21-Jan-13 15.75 0.04 14.4 0.3 28-Jan-13 16.38 0.06 13.7 0.1 04-Feb-13 17.04 0.04 15.8 0.3 24-Feb-13 16.52 0.12 15.5 0.3 21-Mar-13 18.12 0.10 17.9 0.2