Comet

Perihelion: 1925 May 7.84, q = 5.475 AU  One of the most unusual and remarkable comets that we know about was discovered just a little less than a century ago, when on November 15, 1927, the duo of Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Wachmann at Hamburg Observatory in Bergedorf, Germany, found it on photographs as it was …

Perihelion: 1577 October 27.45, q = 0.178 AU  In all of astronomical history, one of the names that stand out is that of the 16th Century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Of noble birth, he showed an interest in astronomy at a young age, although his family tried to steer him into a career in statesmanship; however, …

Perihelion: 2007 May 4.50, q = 2.053 AU  With the light pollution that is endemic to large metropolitan areas, it would seem difficult to believe that any significant astronomical observational activities could be conducted from cities like London these days. But things were different during the late 19th Century . . . On the evening of …

Perihelion: 1965 October 21.18, q = 0.008 AU  What would prove to be the 20th Century’s brightest comet was discovered on the morning of September 18, 1965 – in a sky recently swept clean by a typhoon – by two Japanese amateur astronomers, Kaoru Ikeya and Tsutomu Seki (both of whom were veteran comet discoverers), independently …

Perihelion: 2014 October 25.30, q = 1.399 AU  Of the various comprehensive survey programs that have been operational since the first such programs commenced in the late 1990s, only one has been based in the southern hemisphere: the Siding Spring Survey, based at its namesake observatory in New South Wales and which operated with funding …

Perihelion: 1811 September 12.76, q = 1.035 AU  Once the orbital calculations for Comet Hale-Bopp C/1995 O1 were made and it appeared that it would be making a “Great Comet” display a year and a half in the future, it was natural for those of us at the time to search for historical analogs. A …