Dec. 4, 2018: On Dec. 16th, Comet 46P/Wirtanen will approach Earth less than 11.5 million km away–making it one of the 10 closest-approaching comets of the Space Age. It’s a small comet, with a nucleus barely 1 km wide, but such proximity makes even a small things appear large. The comet’s gaseous atmosphere is now as wide as a full Moon. Mike Broussard of Perry, Louisiana, photographed the comet on Dec. 2nd and inserted the Moon for scale:

“The comet still has a couple of weeks before closest approach and it is already as big as a full Moon,” says Broussard, who could see the comet with his naked eye–“just barely using averted vision and only when it was in the darkest section of the sky,” he adds.

Despite its close approach, 46P/Wirtanen will never become a Great Comet like Comet Hayakutake in 1996 or Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Wirtanen’s relatively small core of dirty ice cannot produce enough gas and dust to create a really bright, flamboyant tail. The best case scenario is probably a big diffuse cloud of magnitude +3 or +4, barely visible to the unaided eye but an easy target for binoculars and small wide-field telescopes.

Last night in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, photographer Chris Cook didn’t even need a telescope to capture Wirtanen’s green glow. He took this picture using a Canon 6D digital camera with a 35 mm lens:

“This was my first sighting of Comet 46P/Wirtanen–just under naked eye visibility for my skies, but in 7×50 binoculars I could see a very large coma (ball of gas) almost 1° in diameter!” reports Cook. “It reminds me of Comet Hayakutake’s massive coma but not nearly as bright.”

Celebrated astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado, who last night took his own HDR image of the comet above a church tower in Spain, offers some advice to novices: “Use Raw file format, a fast lens (at least f/2.8) and ISO settings between 1600 and 3200. The exposure will depend on the focal length. I normally use the 500 rule–that is, exposure = 500 / focal (mm) with a tripod. It also helps in areas with light pollution to use an antipollution filter. I am now using Optolong L-Pro clip filter which gives excellent color balance.”

On the nights of closest approach, 46P/Wirtanen can be found in the constellation Taurus rising in the east at sunset and high in the sky at midnight. Sky watchers in the northern hemisphere may orient themselves using these sky maps: Dec. 5, Dec. 6, Dec. 7, Dec. 8, Dec. 9, Dec. 10, Dec. 11, Dec. 12, Dec. 13, Dec. 14, Dec. 15, Dec. 16

More resources: orbital elements; ephemeris; 3D orbit; light curve.

Nov. 26, 2018: Small but hyperactive Comet 46P/Wirtanen is approaching Earth and could soon become visible to the naked eye. On Dec. 16th, the kilometer-wide ball of dirty ice will be less than 11.5 million km away–making it one of the 10 closest-approaching comets of the Space Age. It already looks magnificent through amateur telescopes. On Nov. 26th, Gerald Rhemann took this picture using a 12-inch reflector in Farm Tivoli, Namibia:

“The comet is currently gliding through the southern constellation Fornax,” says Rhemann. “If you look carefully at the image, you can see galaxy NGC 922 near the comet’s head, and another galaxy ESO 479-2 on the left.”

Rhemann says that the comet’s emerald green atmosphere is 50 arcminutes wide. In other words–almost twice as wide as a full Moon. Its apparent diameter could double in the weeks ahead as the comet comes even closer. Because Wirtanen’s brightness is spread over such a wide area, it is diluted just below the limit of naked eye visibility, with a current magnitude near +6.0. We don’t yet know if the comet will ultimately become visible to the unaided eye–but it will certainly be an easy target for binoculars and backyard telescopes in December.

The nucleus of 46P/Wirtanen is small (~1 km) compared to greater comets such as Hale-Bopp (~30 km) and Halley (~15 km). It makes up for this deficit by hyperactivity. Recent measurements show that the core of 46P/Wirtanen is spinning once every 8.9 hours and spewing almost 10²⁸ water molecules every second. This exceeds the expected production of such a small comet.

Comet Wirtanen passes through the inner solar system every 5.4 years. Right now it is just below the orbit of Earth, and the gap is narrowing. Click on the image above to explore the comet’s approach, courtesy of NASA/JPL.

More resources: sky map; ephemeris; 3D orbit; light curve.

Realtime Comet Photo Gallery

Nov. 12, 2018: There’s a new comet in the morning sky. Discovered just last week by three amateur astronomers–one in Arizona and two in Japan–Comet Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto (C/2018 V1) has quadrupled in brightness over the past few days. “It is now glowing like a fuzzy 8th magnitude star in the constellation Virgo,” reports Michael Jäger of Turmkogel, Austria, who photographed it on Nov. 11th:

“The discovery of a comet by amateur astronomers is a rare event nowadays because robotic Near-Earth-Object search programs usually catch them first,” he says. “My special congratulations to the three discoverers.”

Comet Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto appears to be a first-time visitor to the inner solar system. It is plunging toward the sun on nearly-parabolic orbit that will take it just inside the orbit of Mercury. Closest approach to the sun (0.38 AU) is on Dec. 3-4; closest approach to Earth (0.67 AU) is Nov. 27th.

Click to view the comet’s 3D orbit

Fresh comets like this one are notoriously unpredictable. They can surge in brightness, seeming to promise a spectacular display, when suddenly they fizzle as fragile deposits of ice are exhausted by solar heat. No one knows if Comet Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto will even become a naked eye object. At the moment it is an easy target for backyard telescopes with the promise of … unpredictability. Stay tuned!

Resources: 3D Orbit; Ephemeris; Orbital Elements; Sky Maps.

Realtime Comet Photo Gallery

Sept. 9, 2018: On Sept. 10th, Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner (“21P” for short) makes its closest approach to Earth in 72 years–only 58 million km from our planet. The small but active comet is easy to see in small telescopes and binoculars shining like a 7th magnitude star. Michael Jäger of Weißenkirchen, Austria, photographed 21P approaching our planet on Sept. 9th:

“Comet 21P is currently in the constellation Auriga,” says Jäger. “I caught it just as it was passing by star clusters M36 and M38.”

The comet’s close approach to Earth coincides with a New Moon, providing a velvety-dark backdrop for astrophotography. The best time to look is during the dark hours before sunrise when the constellation Auriga is high in the eastern sky. If you have a GOTO telescope, use these orbital elements to point your optics. Detailed sky maps can help, too.

Shining just below the limit of naked-eye visibility, the comet will remain easy to photograph for the rest of September. If you can only mark one date on your calendar, however, make it Sept. 15th. On that night, 21P will cross directly through the middle of the star cluster M35 in the constellation Gemini. Astronomer Bob King writing for Sky and Telescope notes that “the binocular view should be unique with the rich cluster appearing to sprout a tail!”

Click to view an interactive 3D orbit of 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. Credit: NASA/JPL

21P/Giacobini-Zinner is the parent of the annual Draconid meteor shower, a bursty display that typically peaks on Oct. 8th. Will the shower will be extra-good this year? Draconid outbursts do tend to occur in years near the comet’s close approach to the sun. However, leading forecasters do not expect an outburst this year despite the comet’s flyby. In case they are mistaken, many eyes next month will be on the shower’s radiant in the constellation Draco.

Got a picture of Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner? Submit it here.