C/2018 C2 (Lemmon)

DEPARTED

Type: Hyperbolic Perihelion date: 2 June 2018 Perihelion distance (q): 2.0 Aphelion distance (Q) : n/a Period (years): n/a Eccentricity (e): 1.00 Inclination (i): 34.5 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve An asteroidal object of 20th magnitude was found in Mt Lemmon Survey images taken with the 1.5m reflector on 5 February 2018. It was placed on the PCCP as ZC82561, because it had a slightly hyperbolic orbit, but no cometary activity had been detected. It was therefore given a cometary letter designation with an A/ prefix. On 22 March images taken with the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii showed a broad faint tail, though with only a marginal coma. The designation was therefore changed to C/. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 10-Apr-18 16.65 0.02 16.1 0.5 21-Apr-18 16.29 0.02 15.4 0.6 06-May-18 16.11 0.01 16.0 0.3 16-May-18 15.75 0.01 15.2 0.4 02-Jul-18 15.73 0.05 15.5 0.2 13-Jul-18 16.06 0.03 15.6 0.3 05-Aug-18 16.50 0.01 16.2 0.3 06-Sep-18 17.13 0.04 16.9 0.3