Periodic Comet 6P, d'Arrest (John O'Neal, NC Stargazer)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Sculptor (Scl) · Contains: Solar system body or event

Periodic Comet 6P, d'Arrest

6P/d'Arrest (also known as d'Arrest's Comet or Comet d'Arrest) is a periodic Jupiter-family comet in the Solar System, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. It passed 0.15124 AU (22,625,000 km; 14,059,000 mi) from the Earth on August 12, 1976. The comet last came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on March 2, 2015, but it was in an unfavorable apparition as it had a solar elongation of less than 30 degrees from October 2014 until May 2015.

In 1991, Andrea Carusi and Giovanni B. Valsecchi (Istituto Astrofisica Spaziale, Rome), and Ľubor Kresák and Margita Kresáková (Slovak Astronomical Institute, Bratislava) independently suggested this comet was the same as a comet observed by Philippe de La Hire in 1678. It was first observed by Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest, in Leipzig, Germany, on 28th and 30 June 1851.

The comet nucleus is estimated at about 3.2 km in diameter

This was one of the very first comets I observed and it was not perticularly exciting. It was visually faint at perihelion at 6th magniture, it was pretty unspectacular, even in a 12.5 inch Mac-Cass, looking sort of like an unfocused star, perfectly round and barely more than a point source.

I tried to get pictures with my Olympus OM-1 SLR Astrocamera, but got nothing. This did not curb my enthusiasm for comet observing, however. It did steel my resolve to get better gear so I wouldn't miss out on future attampts.

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Periodic Comet 6P, d'Arrest

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