When periodic Comet 13P/Olbers last passed perihelion in June 1956 I was not quite three and unaware that comets would become a future passion. I'm delighted to be around for its current apparition because I'll surely be in the ground for the next. We borrow comet dust in human form and flash our tails for a time before departing on our own personal journey back to the "Oort Cloud" of unknowing. Carpe cometam! That's my motto and why I'll be regularly visiting 13P/Olbers this summer.
Alan Hale, c0-discoverer of Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1), recovered 13P/Olbers photographically at 22nd magnitude last August, and it will come to perihelion 1.2 astronomical units from the Sun on June 30th. Closest approach to Earth occurs on July 20th at 1.9 a.u. Right now, the tempting target sits in Auriga suspended between Castor and Pollux and the pentagonal outline of the celestial Charioteer very low in the northwestern sky at dusk. During its previous appearance in June 1956 the comet peaked at around magnitude 6.5 under similar observing circumstances. We expect it to reach nearly the same brightness by month's end.
read more - https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/comet-13p-olbers-juices-up-june-skies/
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