C/2006 Q1 McNaught
more info
Comet C/2006 Q1 was discovered on 20 August 2006 by Robert H. McNaught (Siding Spring Survey); that is almost 2 years before its perihelion passage. It was observed systematically during four oppositions until 17 October 2010 (see picture).
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 8 April 2008 (2.241 au), about 3 months before its perihelion passage.
Preferred solution given here is based on data spanning over 4.16 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 6.83 au – 2.764 au (perihelion) – 7.91 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers rather large planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system and these perturbations lead to more tight future orbit with semimajor axis of about 1,400 au (see future barycentric orbits).
See also Królikowska and Dybczyński 2013 and Królikowska 2020.

solution description
number of observations 636
data interval 2006 08 20 – 2008 06 25
data arc selection data generally limited to pre-perihelion (PRE)
range of heliocentric distances 6.83 au – 2.77au
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 1257
RMS [arcseconds] 0.34
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1706 08 26
perihelion date 2008 07 03.95617416 ± 0.00010503
perihelion distance [au] 2.76498305 ± 0.00000115
eccentricity 0.99986331 ± 0.00000125
argument of perihelion [°] 344.363106 ± 0.000035
ascending node [°] 199.515292 ± 0.000008
inclination [°] 59.015626 ± 0.000006
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 49.44 ± 0.45
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2006q1pa.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.