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Comet 260P/McNaught (P=6.89a) will pass perihelion in the solar distance of 1.42 AU on Sep. 9, 2019, expected to peak at magnitude 12.0. At the opening of July it should become visible as an object of about magnitude 15.0 in the morning sky. Until mid-November it will move from the southwestern part of Cetus through Aries towards the border of the constellations Andromeda/Perseus.
The comet showed an interesting brightness development. Whereas the pre-perihelion brightness increased extremely rapidly, post-perihelion the activity parameter was miniscule, based on 182 observations from 36 observers. The brightness parameters are as follow:
pre-perihelion: m0=6.4 mag / n=18 post-perihelion: m0=12.6 mag / n=1.5The maximum brightness of 11.9 mag was reached at end of September / the start of October 2019.
Total Brightness and Coma Diameter
The apparent coma diameter increased from 0.8' at the start of the apparition to the maximum of 1.5' in mid-September. This value remained constant until the opening of December. Thereafter it decreased, reaching 0.7' at the end of January. The resulting absolute coma diameter measured 32.000 km at the start of the apparition, rapidly increasing to 45.000 km until the beginning of August, where it remained. The degree of condensation was DC 5 at the start of October, slowly decreasing to DC 3 until the opening of January. Between the start of August and mid-December 2019 a tail was reported, pointing constantly in southerly directions and reaching a maximum length of 5' (400.000 km).Andreas Kammerer
