Comet Donati–Toussaint, formally designated as C/1864 O1, is a non-periodic comet co-discovered by Italian astronomers, Giovanni Battista Donati and Carlo Toussaint in July 1864.
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Giovanni B. Donati Carlo Toussaint |
| Discovery site | Florence, Italy |
| Discovery date | 23 July 1864 |
| Designations | |
| 1864 III[2] | |
| Orbital characteristics[3][4] | |
| Epoch | 16 October 1864 (JD 2402160.5) |
| Observation arc | 213 days |
| Number of observations | 57 |
| Aphelion | 2,900 AU |
| Perihelion | 0.931 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 1,450 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.999358 |
| Orbital period | 55,242 years |
| Inclination | 109.71° |
| 33.666° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 232.46° |
| Last perihelion | 11 October 1864 |
| TJupiter | –0.400 |
| Physical characteristics[4] | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 5.2 |
| 9.0 (1864 apparition) | |
Discovery and observations
editOn the night of 23 July 1864, astronomers Giovanni Battista Donati and Carlo Toussaint spotted a new comet within the constellation Coma Berenices.[a] Their discovery was confirmed four days later on July 27.[4] Although it never came close to either the Sun or the Earth to allow itself to become a bright object, astronomers were able to observe it until 25 February 1865, and thus were able to determine its orbit with higher precision.[4]
References
editNotes
editCitations
edit- ^ M. Krüger. "Comet II, 1864". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 24: 223.
- ^ "Comet Names and Designations". International Comet Quarterly. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ "C/1864 O1 (Donati–Toussaint) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ a b c d e G. W. Kronk (2003). Cometography: A Catalog of Comets. Vol. 2: 1800–1899. Cambridge University Press. pp. 329–330. ISBN 978-0-521-58505-7.
External links
edit- C/1864 O1 at the JPL Small-Body Database
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