15P / Finlay

Comet 15P / Finlay is a comet discovered on September 26, 1886 by William Henry Finlay ( Cape of Good Hope , Africa ). After the first calculations of the parameters of the comet’s orbit , it was suggested that this is not a new comet, but the comet de Vico ( 54P / de Vico – Swift – NEAT) lost in 1844. But subsequently, these assumptions were not confirmed ^[1] .

Comet Finlay was lost in 1899 due to adverse observation conditions, but was again found in 1906 . On August 16, 1906, the comet passed at 0.27 a. e. from the earth . Then the diameter of her coma was 12 arc minutes (almost half of the visible disk of the moon ). The comet reached its maximum brightness at the time of perihelion passage (6 ^m ) in the last days of August and the first days of September.

In June 1910, the comet passed at 0.45 a. e. from Jupiter , which increased its orbital period from 6.54 years to 6.69 years. On the return of 1913, the comet was not found. High hopes were pinned on the return of 1919 . In fact, this return of Comet Finlay received widespread coverage in various astronomical and scientific journals in view of the alleged favorable observations. Searches were conducted, but in vain. On October 25, 1919, Japanese astronomer T. Sasaki announced the discovery of a new comet, which astronomers quickly identified with Comet Finlay, which was farther from the predicted path than expected.

A significant rapprochement with Jupiter on May 8, 2004 reduced the perihelion distance from 1.03 a. e. up to 0.97 a. e. , which may allow Comet Finlay to become quite bright in one of the subsequent returns.

When approaching the Sun in mid-December 2014, the first flash of a comet occurred when its brightness reached 8.5 ^{m [2]} . In mid-January 2015, comet 15P / Finlay flashed for the second time in the last month, and its brightness according to cometbase.net reached 7 ^m .

It is estimated that on October 26, 2060, the comet will pass at approximately 0.047 a. e. (7 million km) from the Earth ^[3] .