| C/1881 K1 | |
| Epoch: | 2408248.4388 1881-Jun-16.9388[1] |
| Semimajor: | ~180 AU |
| Perihelion: | 0.73455 AU |
| Aphelion: | ~359 AU |
| Eccentricity: | 0.9959 |
| Period: | ~2414 a |
| Inclination: | 63.4256° |
| Discoverer: | John Tebbutt |
| Discovery Date: | 22 May 1881 |
| Designations: | C/1881 K1, 1881 III, 1881b, Great Comet of 1881, Comet Tebbutt |
C/1881 K1 (also called the Great Comet of 1881, Comet Tebbutt, 1881 III, 1881b) is a long-period comet discovered by Australian amateur astronomer John Tebbutt on 22 May 1881[2] at Windsor, New South Wales. It is called a great comet because of its brightness at its last apparition.[3]
On 1 June, Tebbutt found the length of the tail to be 8° 38′. The comet was observed in the southern hemisphere from its discovery to 11 June; it then became visible in the night sky of the northern hemisphere by June 22 as a spectacular object to the naked eye.[4] On June 25 the tail's length was about 25° and the brightness of the nucleus was magnitude 1.[5] [6] [7] The comet was still visible to the naked eye in August but by the end of the month the tail was not discernible.[5] In the Alps, at an altitude of between 1,000 and 2,000 meters, Camille Flammarion observed the comet until the beginning of September.[8] The last successful telescope observation of the comet was on 15 February 1882.[5]
For Tebbutt's Comet of 1881, Henry Draper took the first wide-angle photograph of a comet's tail and the first spectrum of a comet's head.[9] Andrew Common used his Newtonian reflecting telescope with 36-inch mirror to photograph the comet.
In his Astronomical Memoirs in the section entitled 1881, John Tebbutt gave an account of his discovery:[10]