| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt |
| Discovery site | Athens Observatory |
| Discovery date | 2 July 1862 |
| Designations | |
| Alternative designations | 1862 II |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | 4 July 1862 (JD 2401325.5) |
| Observation arc | 29 days |
| Number of observations | 72 |
| Perihelion | 0.981 AU |
| Eccentricity | 1.0 |
| Inclination | 172.11° |
| Longitude of ascending node | 328.44° |
| Argument of periapsis | 27.17° |
| Last perihelion | 22 June 1862 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 9.4 |
| Apparent magnitude | 4–5 (1862 apparition) |
C/1862 N1 (Schmidt), sometimes referred to as C/1862 N1 (Schmidt–Temple), is a non-periodic comet discovered by Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt on 2 July 1862.
Observational history
The comet was discovered on 2 July 1862 Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt, then director of the National Observatory of Athens, and a few hours later was discovered by Wilhelm Tempel, at Marseille Observatory. The comet upon discovery was located in the constellation Cassiopeia and Schmidt described the comet as being tailess, with a coma 22 arcminutes across, and visible with naked eye. Temple estimated its magnitude to be 4–5. Schmidt observed the comet again of July 4 and noted a tail half a degree long.
The comet passed at a distance of 0.0982 astronomical units (14,690,000 km; 9,130,000 mi) from Earth on 4 July, marking the forth closest known approach of a comet to Earth in the 19th century. Consequently the comet moved away from both the Earth and the Sun, while brightening moonlight hampered observations. The comet was last observed with naked eye on 7 July. The comet faded rapidly throughout the month and it was last observed on 31 July.
Meteors
The comet has been tentatively associated with the weak meteor shower ζ Arietids, observed between 13 and 25 August. The minimun orbital intersection distance between the comet and Earth is 0.028 AU.
References
- "C/1862 N1 (Schmidt) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
- ^ G. W. Kronk (2003). Cometography: A Catalog of Comets. Vol. 2: 1800–1899. Cambridge University Press. pp. 305–307. ISBN 978-0-521-58505-7.
- "NEO Earth Close Approaches". cneos.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
- Lindblad, B. A. (1 January 1971). "A computerized stream search among 2401 photographic meteor orbits". Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics. 12: 14–24.
- Šegon, D.; Gural, P.; Andreić, Ž.; Skokić, I.; Korlević, K.; Vida, D.; Novoselnik, F. (1 July 2014). "A parent body search across several video meteor data bases". The Meteoroids 2013, Proceedings of the Astronomical Conference held at A.M. University, Poznań, Poland, Aug. 26-30, 2013: 251–262.
External links
- C/1862 N1 at the JPL Small-Body Database
.png)
