C/2006 P1

C/2006 P1 ( McNaught ) is the name of a comet that was discovered on August 7, 2006 by the Australian Robert McNaught. The comet developed in January 2007 on the brightest comet since Ikeya - Seki in 1965 and is the first comet in 1976, which could be seen in the daytime with the naked eye.

Discovery

Robert McNaught discovered the comet with a 50 -cm Schmidt telescope as part of the Siding Spring Survey. Here, the night sky is regularly monitored for new asteroids and comets. It was McNaughts 31 comet discovery.

Orbit

The comet passed the sun on 12 January 2007 at a distance of only 0.17 AU. Thus the sun next point ( perihelion ) was still within the orbit of Mercury. The largest perigee was achieved with 0.81 AE on 15 January 2007.

Observation conditions

From December 2006 until the third week of January 2007, the comet only a small angular distance from the Sun, so its observation through the twilight was very difficult.

In the northern hemisphere of the earth were the best visibility in the week before the perihelion. The comet was observed both in the evening and at dawn. Up to and including 13 January, he was in Central Europe still visible with the naked eye at dusk. Since the comet is now south of the sun was, he went for observers in the northern hemisphere before the sun, and only after the sun, which is why observations in the evening or morning sky were no longer possible. On January 13 the comet in Central Europe could be seen with the naked eye in the daytime. Still arrive on January 14 isolated telescopic sightings in the daytime. Actually, the comet was then on the northern hemisphere no longer be seen, as it was too far south. But this was only for the head of the comet. The tail was after perihelion so long that surprisingly come from the northern hemisphere on January 17 recordings of the outermost foothills of the comet tail. On January 20, the tail structures were photographed by Germany and Austria. They were to be seen about 1-2 hours after sunset in the west, but extremely weak.

The comet's appearance was in the southern hemisphere in the two weeks after perihelion far more spectacular than on the northern hemisphere. The comet formed from a broad and about 40 ° long tail. In contrast to the heavily affected by the dawn Beobachtungsbedingunen on the Northern Hemisphere, the comet could be seen in the southern hemisphere to much darker skies, since the angular distance of the comet to the sun had risen rapidly after perihelion. In the course of the comet was there also visible in the night sky and the night observable over. On 1 February, he was still to be seen on the southern hemisphere with the naked eye in the night sky.

Brightness evolution

The comet was visible to the naked eye in the deep twilight sky on 5 January 2007 at good visibility horizon. His brightness was at this time about 1mag. On January 6, the brightness reached 0mag. On January 7, a first telescopic photograph of the comet succeeded in the daytime. On January 8, the brightness - 1mag was, on 10 January and on 12 January 2mag over - 3mag. On the 12th the comet was first seen with the naked eye in the daytime. The observation managed 15 minutes before sunset on very clear sky on a 1250m high mountain. On January 13, the comet was seen at noon and in the afternoon by several observers in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland freisichtig in the daytime. The sky was deep blue and doing exceptionally transparent. The brightness of the comet on this date was about - 5mag. The comet with the naked eye in the daytime was also on 14 January. On this day the comet reached its greatest brightness about - 5.5mag. On January 15, the brightness had dropped to about - 4mag and there were only a few isolated sightings with the naked eye in the daytime. On 18 January, it was just under - 3mag. Despite decreasing overall brightness of the comet's appearance in the southern hemisphere from evening to evening was better, as has improved in return the angular distance from the Sun. On January 18, the comet was there not a übersehbares object in the evening sky. After the brightness decreased further and was on 1 February 3mag. The comet was still visible until about February 5 with the naked eye in the southern hemisphere and was afterwards for a few days observable with binoculars.

Observation from space

From 12 to 16 January McNaught went through the field of view coronagraph LASCO C3 of the space observatory SOHO. It was the brightest comet that has been registered with this instrument. The brightness was so strong that the image was partially eclipsed. In addition, the spacecraft STEREO -B has transmitted images of comet to Earth. Images showed the tail of the comet in its whole extent for the first time.