Comet Wilk–Peltier, formal designation C/1925 V1, is a faint hyperbolic comet that was observed through telescopes in late 1925. It was the first comet discovered by American astronomer, Leslie C. Peltier, of which he co-discovered with Polish astronomer, Antoni Wilk.
Observational history
Discovery
Leslie C. Peltier spotted the comet on the evening of 13 November 1925. He estimated the comet as an 8th or 9th-magnitude object, which at the time was located within the constellation Boötes.[a] He informed the Harvard College Observatory and the Yerkes Observatory of his discovery to conduct a photographic search on 16–17 November, but failed to see the comet. It was not until Antoni Wilk independently found the same object from Poland on 19 November 1925.[b]
Although initially uncertain whether or not Peltier and Wilk discovered the same object, Leon Campbell reexamined the photographic plates obtained by the Harvard Observatory and found a faint trail of the comet on the edges of both plates taken on the 16th and 17th, thus confirming their discovery.[6] At the time, some publications refer to the comet as "Peltier–Wilk" since Peltier was the first to discover the comet.[7][8][9] It was officially renamed to "Wilk–Peltier" as Wilk's announcement allowed follow-up observations to be conducted by other observatories around the globe.[2][3]
Follow-up observations
George van Biesbroeck made the last known observations of the comet on 31 December 1925, where he noted it is now a diffuse object that is very low on the horizon as he obtained 3-minute exposures from a 61 cm (24 in) refractor.[c]
Orbit
On 17 November 1925, Wilk–Peltier made its closest approach to Earth at a distance of 0.5743 AU (85.91 million km). Its first orbital calculations were calculated by C. W. Ebell in 1926, which were later refined by van Biesbroeck,[10]Richard A. Rossiter,[11]Louis J. Berman,[12] and others. Their work reveals the comet had a parabolic trajectory with a perihelion date on 6 December 1925. Later in 1929, Felicjan Kępiński revised this to a weakly hyperbolic trajectory and a perihelion date on December 7th, however he did not apply any planetary perturbations into account.[13]
References
Notes
^Reported initial position upon discovery was: α = 15h 25m, δ = 44°[6]
^Antoni Wilk located the comet on the following coordinates: α = 17h 18.5m, δ = 33° 04′[6]
^The comet was last seen in the constellation Capricornus. The following coordinates were: α = 20h 16.2m, δ = –17° 21′[6]
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