On Thu, 5 Dec 2002, Jim Stamm wrote:

> Yes, I heard Levy's program, but didn't realize that it was a repeat.  No 
> wonder I wasn't able to find the comet's elements.  If I recall, the 
> orbit is more like an asteroid's, but at Jupiter's distance.  How bright 
> does Comet Scotti get?

There are 2 comets Scotti out there, both short period comets (which means
they orbit the sun in orbits that take less than 200 years, actually 11.5
years for one, just over 7 years for the other).  Neither of them get
particularly close to the sun (4 AU for one, 2.5 AU for the other - an AU is
the mean distance of Earth from the sun, 93 million miles or 150 million
kilometers).  Neither will get particularly bright either, probably at best
between about 16th and 20th magnitude (the faintest you can see with the
unaided eye is about 6th magnitude and each magnitude is about 2.5 times
fainter so it would take a decent telescope to see....).

Jim.

Jim Scotti                              
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory         jscotti@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu 
University of Arizona                
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/