45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova

Past, Present, and Future Orbits by Kazuo Kinoshita

Copyright © 1995 by Tim Puckett This image was taken by Tim Puckett (Villa Rica, Georgia, USA) on 1995 December 28.99, using a 0.30-m f/7 Meade LX-200 and an SBIG ST-6 CCD camera. It is a 300-second exposure. Discovery      The comet was discovered by Minuru Honda on 1948 December 3, during a routine search for comets. He confirmed his discovery on December 5 and described the comet as diffuse with a magnitude of 9. The orbit was recognised as elliptical with period of a little of 5 years by 1949 January. Historical Highlights The comet seems to have passed very close to Jupiter during 1935 August, at which time it was put into its discovery orbit. The comet has been missed only once since its 1948 discovery. The appearance of 1974-1975 was the comet's best return since it had been discovered. It had passed perihelion on 1974 December 28 and then passed closest to Earth on 1975 February 4 (0.2344 AU). The result was that it reached a maximum magnitude of 7.5 in January. The comet's best appearance to date came during the apparition of 1995-1996. This was the comet's 8th appearance since its discovery. It had passed closest to the sun on 1995 December 25 (0.5319 AU) and passed closest to Earth on 1996 February 6 (0.1702 AU). During the last few days of December the total magnitude was estimated as around 6.5. The comet entered the sun's glare thereafter, and passed only 4.3 degrees from the sun on January 15. It was photographed by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) from January 9 to 18. The comet was about magnitude 7.5 when it emerged from the sun's glare in late January. The comet appeared to have faded rapidly during March. It had faded to magnitude 9 by the 11th and was just slightly brighter than 11 on the 16th. Close approaches to planets: This comet made 11 close approaches to Earth and 2 close approaches to Jupiter during the 20th century. It makes 1 close approach to Venus, 5 close approaches to Earth, and 1 close approach to Jupiter during the first half of the 21st century. (From the orbital work of Kazuo Kinoshita) 0.62 AU from Earth on 1900 July 31 0.64 AU from Earth on 1906 March 20 0.26 AU from Earth on 1917 January 16 0.35 AU from Earth on 1927 November 24 0.08 AU from Jupiter on 1935 August 15 decreased perihelion distance from 0.64 AU to 0.58 AU decreased orbital period from 5.53 to 5.27 years 0.83 AU from Earth on 1943 July 12 0.43 AU from Earth on 1948 November 16 (contributed to comet's discovery) 0.59 AU from Earth on 1954 March 15 0.30 AU from Earth on 1969 August 11 0.23 AU from Earth on 1975 February 5 0.11 AU from Jupiter on 1983 March 26 decreased perihelion distance from 0.58 AU to 0.54 AU increased orbital period from 5.28 to 5.30 years 0.29 AU from Earth on 1990 August 1 0.17 AU from Earth on 1996 February 4 0.09 AU from Venus on 2006 June 4 0.06 AU from Earth on 2011 August 15 0.09 AU from Earth on 2017 February 11 0.57 AU from Earth on 2027 July 20 0.17 AU from Jupiter on 2030 August 3 increased perihelion distance from 0.56 AU to 0.63 AU increased orbital period from 5.34 to 5.52 years 0.37 AU from Earth on 2032 November 6 0.39 AU from Earth on 2043 November 21 Additional Images Copyright©1996 by Herman Mikuz (Crni Vhr Observatory, Slovenia) This V-filter image was taken on 1996 February 2 with the 20-cm, f/2 Baker-Schmidt camera and ST-6 CCD. Exposure time was 120s, starting at 4:49:40 UT. (The webmaster has reversed this image to better represent the comet's appearance.) C&MS Home  |  cometography.com  |  Current  |  Periodic  |  Sungrazers  |  Links  |  Comet Information Media Inquiries If you have any questions, please email me