Palisa's Comet, also known formally as C/1879 Q1 by its modern nomenclature, is a parabolic comet that was barely visible to the naked eye in late 1879. It was the only comet discovered by Austrian astronomer, Johann Palisa.
Discovery and observations Johann Palisa discovered this comet on 21 August 1879, initially mistaking it for a nebula not recorded in the catalogs of Messier and d'Arrest before confirming the object's motion a few hours later. At the time it was located within the constellation Ursa Major, where he described the comet as "round, small, but bright". One of the first ephemerides of the comet were calculated on 5 September. The comet was moving inbound through the inner Solar System between September and October 1879, enabling further observations and refining orbital calculations. Pietro Tacchini measured the coma diameter as 1.7' on 7 October. Ralph Copeland described the comet as "bright and round" on October 19 while measuring the comet's spectra.
References
Notes
Citations
External links C/1879 Q1 at the JPL Small-Body Database