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Kométa Olbers

COMET OLBERS IN THE NIGHT SKY

25. 6. 2024 | 1050 visits

Comet 13P/Olbers began to illuminate the summer night sky. Thanks to its brightness of magnitude 7.5, stargazers from Slovakia can observe the comet with just small binoculars throughout the night.

13P/Olbers is a periodic Halley-type comet with an orbital period of 69 years. The comet was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on March 6, 1815. 

"The comet will pass perihelion on June 30, 2024. It will lie at 1.18 astronomical units from the Sun. The comet will be furthest from the Sun on May 8, 2059 when it will lie at 32.64 astronomical units from our star. The comet will be located out beyond the orbit of Neptune," explains Ján Svoreň of the Astronomical Institute SAS.

At the end of July, the comet could be noticed in the evening and will set an hour after midnight. In mid-August, it will set an hour before midnight. "The comet will pass from the Lynx constellation below the well-known Big Dipper to the constellation Coma Berenices – also known as Berenice's Hair,” the astronomer explains the comet's trajectory.

Comet´s brightness will gradually decrease during the summer, but will still be within the reach of telescopes with an objective diameter of up to 10 cm at the beginning of September.

Edited by Monika Tináková

Photo: Petr Horálek

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