COMET BRADFIELD 1979l

The final comet discovery of the 1970's was fittingly another discovery by South Australia's Bill Bradfield. It was found in the predawn skies on December 24, as a magnitude 5 object in Scorpius.

My first observation of the comet was on December 28 when it was a magnitude 4.8 object with a 2 degree tail. During January, the comet brightened by about one magnitude as it approached the Earth, however the tail faded. The best view of the comet was on January 8, when the comet was about magnitude 4.1 and displayed a 4 degree tail to the naked eye. The comet finally faded from naked eye view in early February, but could be followed with small telescopes for several more weeks.

Computations of the orbit showed that the comet orbits the sun in only 150 years, and so comet Bradfield 1979l, is classed as a periodic comet.