Comet Hartley 2, officially designated 103P/Hartley is a small periodic comet with an orbital period of 6.46 years. It was discovered by Malcolm Hartley in 1986 at the Schmidt Telescope Unit in Siding Spring, Australia. Its diameter is estimated to be 1.2 to 1.6 km.

There is a planned flyby of Hartley 2 by the Deep Impact spacecraft with a closest approach of 700 kilometers on November 4, 2010. This is part of the EPOXI mission.

The comet will pass within 0.12 AU of the Earth on October 20 2010, which is only eight days before coming to closest approach to the Sun on October 28, 2010. During this passage, the comet may be visible to the naked eye at apparent magnitude 5 in the constellation Auriga, if you know where to look and are viewing from a dark sky location.

Here you will find comet ephemeris for September 2010 and a map for search.

Ephemeris 

    Date          UT       R.A. (J2000) Decl.    Delta     r       El.    Ph. Sky Motion
                  h m s                                                                    "/min  P.A.
2010 09 01 000000 22 50 36.5 +37 53 48 0.393 1.312 133.6 33.9 1.38 023.0
2010 09 02 000000 22 51 44.1 +38 24 29 0.385 1.304 133.5 34.2 1.40 023.8
2010 09 03 000000 22 52 55.3 +38 55 26 0.377 1.297 133.3 34.5 1.42 024.6
2010 09 04 000000 22 54 10.4 +39 26 39 0.369 1.289 133.2 34.8 1.45 025.4
2010 09 05 000000 22 55 30.0 +39 58 08 0.361 1.282 133.0 35.1 1.47 026.4
2010 09 06 000000 22 56 54.2 +40 29 54 0.353 1.275 132.9 35.4 1.50 027.3
2010 09 07 000000 22 58 23.8 +41 01 58 0.345 1.268 132.7 35.7 1.53 028.4
2010 09 08 000000 22 59 59.0 +41 34 19 0.337 1.261 132.5 36.1 1.56 029.5
2010 09 09 000000 23 01 40.6 +42 06 59 0.330 1.254 132.4 36.4 1.59 030.6
2010 09 10 000000 23 03 29.0 +42 39 59 0.322 1.247 132.2 36.8 1.63 031.9
2010 09 11 000000 23 05 25.0 +43 13 18 0.315 1.240 132.0 37.1 1.67 033.1
2010 09 12 000000 23 07 29.4 +43 46 58 0.307 1.233 131.8 37.5 1.71 034.5
2010 09 13 000000 23 09 42.8 +44 21 00 0.300 1.226 131.6 37.9 1.76 035.9
2010 09 14 000000 23 12 06.2 +44 55 23 0.293 1.220 131.4 38.2 1.81 037.3
2010 09 15 000000 23 14 40.4 +45 30 08 0.286 1.213 131.2 38.6 1.87 038.8
2010 09 16 000000 23 17 26.7 +46 05 15 0.279 1.207 131.0 39.0 1.93 040.3
2010 09 17 000000 23 20 26.0 +46 40 45 0.272 1.200 130.7 39.4 2.00 041.8
2010 09 18 000000 23 23 39.7 +47 16 36 0.265 1.194 130.5 39.8 2.07 043.5
2010 09 19 000000 23 27 09.1 +47 52 47 0.258 1.188 130.3 40.2 2.15 045.1
2010 09 20 000000 23 30 55.7 +48 29 18 0.251 1.182 130.1 40.5 2.23 046.8
2010 09 21 000000 23 35 01.4 +49 06 04 0.245 1.176 129.9 40.9 2.32 048.6
2010 09 22 000000 23 39 27.8 +49 43 04 0.238 1.170 129.7 41.3 2.42 050.4
2010 09 23 000000 23 44 17.1 +50 20 12 0.232 1.165 129.5 41.7 2.53 052.3
2010 09 24 000000 23 49 31.6 +50 57 23 0.226 1.159 129.2 42.1 2.65 054.3
2010 09 25 000000 23 55 13.6 +51 34 28 0.219 1.154 129.0 42.5 2.78 056.3
2010 09 26 000000 00 01 25.9 +52 11 18 0.213 1.148 128.8 42.8 2.91 058.4
2010 09 27 000000 00 08 11.3 +52 47 40 0.207 1.143 128.6 43.2 3.06 060.6
2010 09 28 000000 00 15 33.0 +53 23 19 0.201 1.138 128.4 43.6 3.22 062.9
2010 09 29 000000 00 23 34.1 +53 57 54 0.195 1.133 128.3 44.0 3.39 065.3
2010 09 30 000000 00 32 18.1 +54 31 03 0.190 1.129 128.1 44.3 3.57 067.9

Path of 103P/Hartley

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