C/2009 F4 McNaught
more info
Comet C/2009 F4 was discovered on 19 March 2009, that is 2.8 yr before perihelion passage, and next was observed 6.4 yr during seven oppositions in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.96 au – 5.455 au (perihelion) – 10.5 au.

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 3 June 2011 (5.179 au, almost seven months before perihelion).

NG orbits using full data-arc as well as using pre-perihelion data arc are determinable.

This Oort spike comet suffers a tiny 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 and Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017.
solution description
number of observations 1204
data interval 2009 03 19 – 2015 08 20
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 8.96 au – 5.46 au (perihelion) – 10.5 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 2383
RMS [arcseconds] 0.51
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1705 07 22
perihelion date 2011 12 31.91976934 ± 0.00020677
perihelion distance [au] 5.45170706 ± 0.00000065
eccentricity 0.99977426 ± 0.00000140
argument of perihelion [°] 260.451489 ± 0.000015
ascending node [°] 53.538709 ± 0.000004
inclination [°] 79.343265 ± 0.000007
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 41.41 ± 0.26
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2009f4a5.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.