C/1966 T1 Rudnicki
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Comet C/1966 R1 was discovered on 15 October 1966 by Polish astronomer Konrad Rudnicki in the course of the Palomar Supernova Search Program (USA), that is almost 3 months before its perihelion passage. It was observed until 28 February 1967.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 26 December 1966 (0.412 au), more than two months after its discovery.
The first hyperbolic orbit was determined by Grzegorz Sitarski and Krzysztof Ziołkowski using 21 observations (IAU Circ., No. 1983, December 1966). Solution given here is based on data spanning over 0.312 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 1.49 au – 0.419 au (perihelion) – 0.628 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers large planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
See also Królikowska 2020.

solution description
number of observations 50
data interval 1966 10 17 – 1967 02 08
data type significantly more measurements before perihelion (PRE+)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 1.49 au – 0.42 au (perihelion) – 0.62 au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion NG effects not determinable
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting NO
number of residuals 97
RMS [arcseconds] 1.68
orbit quality class 2a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1668 12 22
perihelion date 1967 01 20.81796316 ± 0.00069601
perihelion distance [au] 0.41708205 ± 0.00000851
eccentricity 0.99996317 ± 0.00001542
argument of perihelion [°] 79.727579 ± 0.001026
ascending node [°] 75.856526 ± 0.000902
inclination [°] 9.077097 ± 0.000246
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 88.30 ± 36.97
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
1966t1a1.bmi
Time distribution of positional observations with corresponding heliocentric (red curve) and geocentric (green curve) distance at which they were taken. The horizontal dotted line shows the perihelion distance for a given comet whereas vertical dotted line — the moment of perihelion passage.
Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.