Australian astronomer discovers 57th comet

Australian astronomer Robert Mc Naught has discovered his 57th comet. The comet was imaged by the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope (located at Siding Spring Observatory, near Coonabarabran, Australia). The preliminary orbit for comet P/2010 T1 (McNaught) shows that it will be closest to the Sun on November 24, 2010, at about 3.2 Astronomical Units.The comet takes 10.2 years to orbit the Sun. The comets current magnitude is only 18.5, meaning that it cannot be seen through the most common sized amateur telescopes. The International Astronomical Union announced the discovery on October 05, 2010. An image of the comet can be found here.