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Bright comets in the coming 3 months

The below table lists all comets that are expected to become brighter than magnitude 15 in the coming 3 months.
For detailed information about a comet, click on its designation.

Comet(s) Today Perihelion Nearest approach
designation magn delta radius date magn radius date magn delta
12P/Pons-Brooks3.71.60 AU0.79 AU21 Apr 20243.70.78 AU2 Jun 20245.51.55 AU
13P/Olbers9.22.26 AU1.51 AU30 Jun 20246.51.18 AU20 Jul 20246.71.90 AU
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)10.41.84 AU2.82 AU27 Sep 20240.30.39 AU12 Oct 2024-0.80.47 AU
C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS)10.81.51 AU1.69 AU14 Feb 202410.21.32 AU14 Mar 202410.11.30 AU
154P/Brewington10.92.52 AU1.64 AU11 Jun 202410.11.55 AU3 Jan 202516.41.78 AU
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann13.06.24 AU6.20 AU3 May 201912.85.79 AU9 Sep 201812.14.80 AU
144P/Kushida13.01.47 AU1.74 AU25 Jan 20249.41.40 AU12 Dec 20239.60.57 AU
46P/Wirtanen13.12.08 AU1.10 AU19 May 202412.91.05 AU21 May 202412.92.03 AU
C/2023 V4 (Camarasa-Duszanowicz)13.22.13 AU1.24 AU30 May 202412.61.12 AU3 Jul 202412.91.80 AU
C/2022 E2 (ATLAS)13.64.21 AU3.87 AU14 Sep 202413.33.67 AU1 Dec 202412.82.99 AU
C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS)13.86.30 AU5.63 AU19 Dec 20228.51.80 AU14 Jul 20228.91.81 AU
C/2020 V2 (ZTF)13.94.75 AU4.38 AU8 May 202310.42.23 AU17 Sep 20239.91.85 AU
479P/Elenin13.90.62 AU1.25 AU5 May 202413.91.24 AU4 May 202413.90.62 AU
C/2021 G2 (Atlas)14.04.26 AU5.09 AU9 Sep 202414.64.98 AU15 Apr 202414.04.24 AU
473P/NEAT14.02.05 AU1.61 AU26 Feb 202413.31.41 AU4 Nov 202314.21.42 AU
62P/Tsuchinshan14.40.99 AU1.88 AU25 Dec 20238.61.26 AU29 Jan 20249.10.50 AU
C/2019 L3 (ATLAS)14.67.20 AU7.78 AU9 Jan 20229.43.56 AU6 Jan 20229.42.58 AU
C/2022 L2 (ATLAS)14.71.97 AU2.74 AU12 Mar 202414.62.69 AU5 Apr 202414.41.81 AU
32P/Comas Sola14.72.49 AU2.03 AU20 Apr 202414.62.02 AU29 Nov 202314.91.43 AU
C/2023 C2 (ATLAS)15.02.70 AU3.24 AU16 Nov 202413.82.37 AU20 Jul 202413.62.07 AU
C/2019 U5 (PANSTARRS)15.04.96 AU5.00 AU29 Mar 202312.33.62 AU24 Mar 202312.32.63 AU
C/2023 R2 (PANSTARRS)16.22.82 AU1.97 AU12 Aug 202411.90.91 AU16 Aug 202411.91.84 AU
37P/Forbes16.31.28 AU2.24 AU11 Oct 202413.81.62 AU6 May 202416.01.27 AU


For each of the listed comets, the current position is plotted in the below all-sky chart: 





    Terminology:
            
    delta:      Distance between comet and earth in AU
    radius:     Distance between comet and sun in AU
    magn:       Magnitude (brightness) estimate    
    elong:      Elongation in degrees (angle sun-earth-comet)    
    AU:         Astronomical Unit (mean distance between earth and sun: 149597870.7 km
    Perihelion: On this date the comet (or other type of body) is closest to the sun

Orbital elements provided by MPC (Minor Planet Center).
Observations contributed by observers worldwide, via COBS (Comet Observation Database).
Calculations by a modified version of AAPlus, a C# implementation of the AA+ project by PJ Naughter from the algorithms presented in the book "Astronomical Algorithms" by Jean Meeus.
NGC2000 dso catalog and star labels from VizieR as provided by the Strasbourg astronomical Data Center.
Tycho2 catalog from the ESO archive.

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