Home=Current Comets: 24P (2025/26)
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During the winter months 2025/26 comet 24P/Schaumasse (P=8.18a) should become an object that is easily visible through a telescope and probably even in binoculars. It will pass perihelion at a solar distance of 1.18 AU on Jan. 8, 2026. On Jan. 4, 2026 it will come to within 0.59 AU of Earth. There are different approaches concerning the brightness parameters. While a high activity parameter of n=12 is generally assumed, values between m0 = 7.5 mag and m0 = 9.5 mag are discussed for the absolute magnitude. Accordingly, the brightness should increase from 13 mag (11 mag) in mid-November 2025 to 10.5 mag (8.5 mag) in early January 2026, thereafter fading to 11.5 mag (9.5 mag) by mid-February. During the winter months of 2025/26 the comet can be observed in the morning sky. It will move from the constellation Cancer to the border of of the constellations Bootes/Virgo, where it will reach its maximum brightness of 10.5 mag (possibly 8.5 mag). The Earth will cross the comet's orbital plane on Dec. 10.
Andreas Kammerer