C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy)

C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy)
	Comet C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy) discovery frame
Discovery
Discovered by	Terry Lovejoy
Discovery date	15 March 2007
Orbital characteristics
Epoch	2454230.5 ; (10 May 2007)
Aphelion	1838 AU (inbound); 1554 AU (outbound)
Perihelion	1.09294 AU
Eccentricity	0.999233
Orbital period	~28000 yr (inbound); ~22000 yr (outbound)
Inclination	95.8835°
Last perihelion	27 March 2007
Physical characteristics
Mean radius	0.624 km (0.388 mi)
Comet total; magnitude (M1)	8.5

C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy) is a non-periodic comet discovered by Terry Lovejoy on 15 March 2007. Its perihelion was 27 March 2007, while its closest approach to Earth was 25 April 2007 in Hercules at a distance of 0.44 AU. Maximum apparent magnitude was approximately +8.^[3]

The discovery was made using a Canon EOS 350D consumer grade digital camera, and not a CCD survey camera.^[4]

Image gallery

C/2007 E2 on 21 April 2007 from Mount Laguna, California
Sporting a vague tail to the 2 o'clock on 9 May 2007 from Mount Laguna. The star is Mu Draconis (mag 4.90)

References

Notes

↑ Calculated mean radius using the formula: $\log _{10}\,(\,R\,)\ =\;0.9+\;0.13(\,H\,)$ ^[2]
Where $\,H\,$ is the comet's absolute total magnitude (M1)