C/1978 R3 (Machholz)

For other comets discovered by Donald E. Machholz, see Comet Machholz.

Comet Machholz, formally designated as C/1978 R3, is a hyperbolic comet that was observed throughout late 1978. It is the first of 12 comets discovered by American astronomer, Donald Machholz.^[6] He found the comet on 12 September 1978 while observing with a 25-cm reflector telescope from Los Gatos, California. He described it as a diffuse object without central condensation with an apparent magnitude of about 11.^[6] The first parabolic orbit, calculated by M. P. Candy, indicated that at the moment of discovery the comet was past its perihelion and it was approaching Earth.^[7]

C/1978 R3 (Machholz)

C/1978 R3 (Machholz) taken by Hans-Emil Schuster from ESO on 14 September 1978[1][2]
Discovery[3]
Discovered by	Donald Machholz
Discovery site	Los Gatos, California
Discovery date	13 September 1978
Designations
Alternative designations	1978 XIII, 1978l[4]
Orbital characteristics[5]
Epoch	2 November 1978 (JD 2443814.5)
Observation arc	322 days
Number of observations	46
Perihelion	1.772 AU
Eccentricity	1.00028
Inclination	130.64°
Longitude of ascending node	290.68°
Argument of periapsis	224.75°
Mean anomaly	0.0002°
Last perihelion	13 August 1978
Earth MOID	0.942 AU
Jupiter MOID	1.672 AU
Comet total magnitude (M1)	8.3