C/1973 E1 Kohoutek
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Comet C/1973 E1 was discovered on 7 March 1973 by Luboš Kohoutek (Hamburg Observatory, Bergerdorf, Germany), that is 9 months and 3 weeks before its perihelion passage.Later, a prediscovery observation was found taken on 28 January at the same place. This comet was observed until 10 November 1974 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 5].
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 15 January 1974 (0.806 au), 2.5 weeks after its perihelion passage.
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 1.24 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 5.15 au – 0.142 au (perihelion) – 2.52 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers rather small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to a more tight future orbit with semimajor axis of about 1,700 au.
See also Królikowska 2020.

solution description
number of observations 850
data interval 1973 01 28 – 1974 04 26
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 5.15 au – 0.14 au (perihelion) – 2.52 au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion comet with determinable NG~orbit
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting YES
number of residuals 1690
RMS [arcseconds] 1.36
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1677 01 29
perihelion date 1973 12 28.73953496 ± 0.00002750
perihelion distance [au] 0.14314318 ± 0.00000014
eccentricity 0.99999713 ± 0.00000034
argument of perihelion [°] 37.849568 ± 0.000079
ascending node [°] 258.374164 ± 0.000088
inclination [°] 14.284433 ± 0.000025
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 20.04 ± 2.33
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
1973e1a5.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.