C/1879 Q1 (Palisa)

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.

C/1879 Q1 (Palisa)

Discovery
Discovered by	Johann Palisa
Discovery site	Pula, Croatia
Discovery date	21 August 1879
Designations
Alternative designations	1879d[1] 1879 V
Orbital characteristics[2]
Epoch	25 September 1879 (JD 2407617.5)
Observation arc	48 days
Number of observations	12
Perihelion	0.9895 AU
Eccentricity	~1.000
Inclination	77.12°
Longitude of ascending node	88.87°
Argument of periapsis	115.48°
Last perihelion	5 October 1879
Earth MOID	0.3021 AU
Jupiter MOID	0.8980 AU
Physical characteristics[3]
Comet total magnitude (M1)	8.0
Apparent magnitude	5.5 (1879 apparition)

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.^[3] At the time it was located within the constellation Ursa Major,^[a] where he described the comet as "round, small, but bright".^[3] One of the first ephemerides of the comet were calculated on September 5.^[4]

The comet was moving inbound through the inner Solar System between September and October 1879, enabling further observations and refining orbital calculations.^[3] Pietro Tacchini measured the coma diameter as 1.7' on October 7.^[5] Ralph Copeland described the comet as "bright and round" on October 19 while measuring the comet's spectra.^[6]