Newly found comet visible next year?

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 2

Newly found comet visible next year?

A comet that may be a bright wanderer in southern skies next year has been discovered by a Mount Palomar Observatory astronomer in California. New Zealand astronomers will be reluctant to predict big things for the newly found Comet Wilson, partly because of the faintness of Comet Kohoutek in 1973. Kohoutek was a disappointment to most backyard viewers after its big publicity build-up. Comet Wilson was discovered on August 5 by Christine Wilson. It was seen on photographs taken by the 1.2 m Schmidt camera at Mount Palomar in the

course of new sky surveys. The comet was tracked for a few days, and estimated to be about 400 million kilometres away from the Sun, or about times the Earth’s distance from the Sun. Information about Comet Wilson has been received by Mr Alan Gilmore, technician at the University of Canterbury’s observatory on Mount John, above Lake Tekapo. Mr Gilmore and his wife run the comet and minor planets section of the Royal Astronomical Society’s New Zealand branch. Mr Gilmore said that the comet could be closest to the Sun about April

21, when it will be about 1.2 times the Earth’s distance from the Sun. It could be about 19 million kilometres away from Earth in early May. If it performs according to normal laws, it could appear about as bright as Halley’s Comet in southern skies. It will be near the south pole of the sky, and will be in the sky all night. Comet Kohoutek came on a closer track to the Sun than Comet Wilson. The comet’s orbit will become better known the longer it is tracked. On present knowledge, observers at the end of April and beginning of May should be able to find it without binoculars.