C/1959 O1 (Bester–Hoffmeister)

Comet Bester–Hoffmeister, formally designated as C/1959 O1, is a faint hyperbolic comet that was observed between June and September 1959.

C/1959 O1 (Bester–Hoffmeister)

Discovery[1]
Discovered by	Mike John Bester Cuno Hoffmeister
Discovery site	Bloemfontein, South Africa
Discovery date	26 July 1959
Designations
Alternative designations	1959 III, 1959d[2]
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch	11 July 1959 (JD 2436760.5)
Observation arc	101 days
Earliest precovery date	2 June 1959
Number of observations	29
Perihelion	1.251 AU
Eccentricity	1.002679
Inclination	12.832°
Longitude of ascending node	105.735°
Argument of periapsis	186.507°
Last perihelion	17 July 1959
Physical characteristics[4][5]
Mean radius	0.41 km (0.25 mi)[a]
Comet total magnitude (M1)	9.9
Comet nuclear magnitude (M2)	14.9
Apparent magnitude	8.0 (1959 apparition)

Discovery and observations

The comet was discovered in photographic plates taken by South African astronomers, Mike John Bester and Cuno Hoffmeister, on the night of 26 July 1959. At the time, it was an 8th-magnitude object located within the constellation Ophiuchus.^[b] However, their findings were not reported until 17 August 1959 due to a communications error.^[1][6]

Subsequently, precovery images started to be found, with the earliest known observations taken from the Sonneberg Observatory between 2 and 5 June 1959.^[5] Further observations of the comet became increasingly difficult in the following days, where on 8 August, the comet faded to magnitude 10 as it moved towards the constellation of Microscopium.^[7][8]

The comet was last seen on 11 September, when Hoffmeister spotted it as a 14th-magnitude object within the constellation Grus.^[c]

Orbit

Joachim Schubart and Brian G. Marsden computed the definitive orbital trajectory of the comet in 1961 and 1962, respectively.^[9][10] They have determined a weakly hyperbolic trajectory with a perihelion date of 17 July 1959, about nine days before discovery, with Marsden concluding that the comet's original orbit during its inbound flight is likely an ellipse.^[5]