C/2018 W2 (Africano)

DEPARTED

Type: Hyperbolic Perihelion date: 5 September 2019 Perihelion distance (q): 1.5 Aphelion distance (Q) : n/a Period (years): n/a Eccentricity (e): 1.00 Inclination (i): 116.6 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve Brian Africano discovered a comet of 18th magnitude in Mt Lemmon Survey images taken with the 1.5m reflector on 27 November 2018. It was discovered at almost the same time by Hannes Groeller in images taken by the Catalina Sky Survey with the 0.68m Schmidt on 27 November, but his report arrived after the one from Mt Lemmon. The object was placed on the PCCP as ZW8B74D. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 01-Jan-19 17.66 0.10 16.0 0.3 08-Jan-19 18.12 0.05 17.4 0.3 15-Jan-19 17.73 0.02 17.0 0.3 14-Jul-19 14.48 0.02 11.5 1.7 13-Aug-19 14.25 0.03 11.1 2.2 27-Aug-19 14.40 0.01 11.3 5.2 01-Sep-19 14.36 0.02 11.3 4.9 08-Sep-19 14.17 0.02 11.1 7.6 24-Sep-19 13.12 0.02 10.0 8.7 29-Sep-19 12.50 0.03 9.2 9.5 17-Oct-19 13.76 0.01 11.0 2.9