C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

Type: Hyperbolic Perihelion date: 3 January 2022 Perihelion distance (q): 0.6 Aphelion distance (Q) : n/a Period (years): n/a Eccentricity (e): 1.00 Inclination (i): 132.7 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve Gregory Leonard discovered a comet of 19th magnitude in images taken with the 1.5m reflector of the Mt Lemmon Survey on 3 January 2021. It was placed on the PCCP as C4AGJ62. There were prediscovery observations from Catalina Sky Survey (December 2020 and January 2021), Mt Lemmon Survey (April and November 2020), PanSTARRS (April, May, June and August 2020) and the Szeged Asteroid Program, Hungary (November 2020).The comet will pass 0.23 au from the earth on 12 December 2021 and 0.0286 au from Venus on 18 December 2021. The comet could come within visual range in October 2021 and reach 4th magnitude in December during its approach to Earth. It then goes into solar conjunction. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 14-Feb-21 18.0 0.4 17-Mar-21 17.5 0.4 05-Apr-21 18.06 0.05 17.6 0.4 13-Apr-21 17.8 0.4 03-May-21 16.8 0.4 15-May-21 17.1 0.4