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Starting in October 2017 owners of large instruments could try to find comet 62P/Tsuchinshan (P=6.38a). It should brighten to 14.5 mag until the end of November. In October/November it will move from Cancer to the border of the constellations Leo/Virgo, thus being visible in the morning sky. However, this comet shows an erratic brightness behaviour.
Based on 98 observational reports by 30 observers it can be stated, that this comet showed an extremely rapid increase in brightness pre-perihelion and a slower – but in comparison still fast - decrease post-perihelion. The brightness parameters are as follows:
pre-perihelion: mm = -0.5 mag / n = 30 post-perihelion: mm = +4.8 mag / n = 15The maximum brightness of 10.6 mag was reached during the last ten days of November.
Total Brightness and Coma Diameter
The apparent coma diameter increased from 2.5' at the beginning of the apparition to slightly more than 4' by the end of November. Thereafter it decreased slowly to 3.5' in mid-January. The absolute coma diameter increased from 175.000 km at first to a maximum of 250.000 km at the end of November, decreasing thereafter, reaching 175.000 km in mid-January. The coma was quite diffuse. The degree of condensation was estimated at DC 3-4 pre-perihelion and DC 2-3 post-perihelion. No tail was reported from visual observers.
Andreas Kammerer
