The orbit almost touches with the earth's orbit at the perihelion.
Therefore, it often approaches to the earth.
It is usually fainter than 18 mag. However, when it passes the
perihelion in September or October, it comes close to the earth and
becomes very bright. It passed only 0.09 A.U. from the earth in 1979
and brightened up to 11-13 mag. After this, it will approaches to the
earth in 2039 and 2082 down to 0.1 A.U., then it will be as bright as
1979 and observable in good condition.
The brightness of this object is strongly influenced by the phase
angle. When it approaches to the earth, the condition of the phase
angle becomes also good, and it becomes very bright. On the other
hand, when it does not approach to the earth, the condition of the
phase angle becomes also bad, and it remains very faint.
It looks completely asteroidal. A faint tail was detected only in
1949, but no coma was detected. It kept the usual brightness even in
1949 when the tail was observed. No outburst has ever happened on this
comet.
Kazuo Kinoshita's calculation revealed no significant change of the
orbit for about 200 years from 20th through 21st century.
Profile
Appeared before discovery
Not observed before discovery
