Site logo, www.grelf.net
 

Comet 46P/Wirtanen

This comet comes close to Earth in its 2018 apparition towards the end of the year. It may therefore become quite bright. For this reason I have generated the following charts to help follow it. In December the comet is moving rapidly northwards and in the middle of the month it is likely to be at its closest to Earth and with its brightest apparent magnitude.

  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Oct 1 - Nov 1 (in Fornax)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Nov 1 - Dec 1 (For - Eri)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 1 - Dec 6 (Eri)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 6 - Dec 10 (Eri - Cet)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 10 - Dec 13 (Cet - Tau)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 13 - Dec 16 (Tau)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 16 - Dec 18 (Tau, near Pleiades)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 18 - Dec 20 (Tau - Per)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 20 - Dec 22 (Per - Aur)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 22 - Dec 24 (Aur)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 24 - Dec 26 (Aur)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 26 - Dec 28 (Aur)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 28 - Dec 31 (Aur - Lyn)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2018 Dec 31 - 2019 Jan 4 (Lyn)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2019 Jan 5 - Jan 10 (Lyn/Cam)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2019 Jan 10 - Jan 18 (Lyn/UMa)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2019 Jan 18 - Feb 1 (UMa)
  • 46P/Wirtanen 2019 Feb 1 - Mar 1 (UMa - LMi)
  • Perihelion is on 12th December at 1.05au. Perigee is on 17th December at 0.08au.

    Pointing to stars or date-labelled comet positions on each chart will show ephemeris data. The date-labelled positions are for 0h UT on those dates.

    Sample star data
    Star identifier, from Hipparchos/Tycho data
    Visual magnitude, V
    (variable stars are indicated)
    Colour index, B - V

     

    Sample comet data
    Julian day, JD
    Right Ascension
    Declination
    Distance from Sun, r
    Distance from Earth, Δ
    Angle from Sun, elong
    Estimated magnitude, V

    Stars shown in green squares have similar colour index to the Sun and so could be useful for magnitude comparisons.

     

    NB: The magnitude could turn out to be very different from the estimate

    Next page