C/1978 R3 Machholz
more info
Comet C/1978 R3 was discovered on 12 September 1978 by Donald E. Machholz (Mt Loma Prita, California, USA), that is about a month after its perihelion passage.This comet was last observed on late September 1979.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 15 October 1978 (1.510 au), about a month after discovery.
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 1.03 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 1.82 au to 4.89 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to a more tight future orbit.See also Królikowska 2020.

solution description
number of observations 52
data interval 1978 09 14 – 1979 09 25
data type observed only after perihelion (POST)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 1.82 au – 4.89au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion NG effects not determinable
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting NO
number of residuals 101
RMS [arcseconds] 1.50
orbit quality class 1b
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1678 04 14
perihelion date 1978 08 12.62101255 ± 0.00264648
perihelion distance [au] 1.76384510 ± 0.00001699
eccentricity 0.99987568 ± 0.00004882
argument of perihelion [°] 224.841833 ± 0.001400
ascending node [°] 290.598363 ± 0.000272
inclination [°] 130.65324 ± 0.000145
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 70.48 ± 27.68
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
1978r3a1.bmi
Time distribution of positional observations with corresponding heliocentric (red curve) and geocentric (green curve) distance at which they were taken. The horizontal dotted line shows the perihelion distance for a given comet whereas vertical dotted line — the moment of perihelion passage.
Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.