C/1978 R3 (Machholz)

Comet Machholz, formally designated as C/1978 R3, is a hyperbolic comet that was observed throughout late 1978. It is the first of 12 comets discovered by American astronomer, Donald Machholz. He found the comet on 12 September 1978 while observing with a 25-cm reflector telescope from Los Gatos, California. He described it as a diffuse object without central condensation with an apparent magnitude of about 11. The first parabolic orbit, calculated by M. P. Candy, indicated that at the moment of discovery the comet was past its perihelion and it was approaching Earth.