Abstract:
Periodic comet Encke (P/Encke) was observed spectrophotometrically during its apparition in 1984 march, before perihelion. We observed emission features due to CN and C₂ molecules, but sodium emission was absent from the nucleus of the comet at r=0.38 AU. Spinrad has also found that sodium emission was not present in 1980 November. The lack of sodium emission is probably due to a different composition for this comet and its old age.
