C/2005 L3 McNaught
more info
C/2005 L3 was discovered by R.H. McNaught with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt in the course of the Siding Spring Survey on 3 June 2005 [IAUC 8536, 2005 June 7]. Later, prediscovery detections by Siding Spring Survey were found (16 July and 16 August 2004, see figure).

This comet made two closest approaches to the Earth on 24 June 2007 (4.852 au, almost seven months before perihelion) and 12 May 2008 (4.857 au, four months after perihelion).

Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 9.48 yr (10 oppositions) in a range of heliocentric distances: 10.3 au – 5.593 au (perihelion) – 14.9 au.

NG orbit using full data-arc is determinable.

This Oort spike comet suffers rather small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to a more tight future orbit (see future barycentric orbit).

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023, Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017,and Królikowska 2014.
solution description
number of observations 3780
data interval 2008 01 12 – 2014 01 09
data arc selection data generally limited to post-perihelion (POS)
range of heliocentric distances 5.59 au – 5.59 au (perihelion) – 14.9 au
type of model of motion NC - non-gravitational orbits for symmetric CO-g(r)-like function
data weighting YES
number of residuals 7410
RMS [arcseconds] 0.52
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2317 09 16
perihelion date 2008 01 14.81603391 ± 0.00178355
perihelion distance [au] 5.58862534 ± 0.00000952
eccentricity 0.99834967 ± 0.00000529
argument of perihelion [°] 47.061905 ± 0.000151
ascending node [°] 288.804424 ± 0.000011
inclination [°] 139.44587 ± 0.000003
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 295.30 ± 0.95
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2005l3rc.bpl
Upper panel: 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.
Middle panel(s): O-C diagram for a given solution (sometimes in comparison to another solution available in CODE), where residuals in right ascension are shown using magenta dots and in declination by blue open circles.
Lowest panel: Relative weights for a given data set(s).
Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of future swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.