C/2004 Q1 (Tucker)

Comet Tucker, formally designated as C/2004 Q1, is a faint non-periodic comet that had a very distant perihelion on 11 December 2004. It was the second of two comets discovered by famed amateur astronomer, Roy A. Tucker.^[a]

C/2004 Q1 (Tucker)

Discovery[1]
Discovered by	Roy A. Tucker
Discovery site	Tucson, Arizona
Discovery date	23 August 2004
Designations
Alternative designations	CK04Q010[2]
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch	11 December 2004 (JD 2453350.5)
Observation arc	615 days (1.68 years)
Earliest precovery date	22 August 2004
Number of observations	1,972
Aphelion	~370 AU
Perihelion	2.047 AU
Semi-major axis	~190 AU
Eccentricity	0.98904
Orbital period	~2,550 years
Inclination	56.088°
Longitude of ascending node	22.130°
Argument of periapsis	32.968°
Mean anomaly	0.0015°
Last perihelion	6 December 2004
TJupiter	1.015
Earth MOID	1.146 AU
Jupiter MOID	2.582 AU
Physical characteristics
Comet total magnitude (M1)	9.6
Comet nuclear magnitude (M2)	11.8
Apparent magnitude	10.5 (2004 apparition)

Discovery and observations

Roy A. Tucker discovered the comet as a diffuse magnitude 14.6 object in the constellation Cetus on 23 August 2004,^[b] using a 0.35 m (14 in) reflector telescope.^[4] Images on 25 August show a 30" coma and a tail measuring 70" in length.^[1] Observations from Spain in the next day reported that it was 12.9 in apparent magnitude.^[5] It steadily brightened in the following months until it reached perihelion on December 2004,^[6] although it did not get any closer to the inner Solar System, resulting in a peak magnitude of 10.5.^[7]

Orbital calculations by Brian G. Marsden revealed that C/2004 Q1 might not be a "new" comet from the Oort cloud, noting its trajectory as dynamically old.^[8] It was last observed on 4 May 2005.^[7][9]

Notes

1. Roy A. Tucker's first comet discovery was 328P/LONEOS–Tucker in 1998
2. Reported initial position upon discovery was: α = 2^h 42^m 20.76^s, δ = 2° 08′ 54.4″^[1]