The comet with the shortest known orbital
period, 3.3 years. It is named after German
mathematician and astronomer, Johann Franz
Encke (1791-1865) who, in 1819 calculated the
orbit from earlier sightings. It was first
sighted in 1786 by the French astronomer,
Mechain. It was rediscovered by Herschel in
1795 and independently by Pons, Huth, and
Bouvard in 1805. In 1913, it became the first
comet to be observed throughout its entire
orbit when it was photographed near aphelion
(the point in its orbit furthest from the
Sun) by astronomers at Mount Wilson
Observatory in California, USA.