C/1975 V1 (West)The Great Comet of 1976, with a spectacular broad dust tail
Comet West
Comet West reached perihelion on 25 February 1976 and peaked around magnitude −3, briefly bright enough to be seen in daylight and unfurling a magnificent, broad, fan-shaped dust tail across the dawn sky. Near perihelion its icy nucleus split into four fragments, a rare event that astronomers tracked in detail. Though one of the most beautiful comets of the 20th century, it is on a near-parabolic orbit and will not return for hundreds of thousands of years.
- Designation
- C/1975 V1 (West)
- Type
- Great comet
- Orbital period
- Non-periodic (~Long-period, est. 254,000–558,000 years)
- Discovery
- Richard M. West (European Southern Observatory), discovered photographically on 10 August 1975
