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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
C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos)8.81.60 AU0.65 AU20 Jan 20268.00.57 AU17 Feb 20268.61.01 AU
C/2025 A6 (Lemmon)9.72.08 AU1.34 AU8 Nov 20254.70.53 AU21 Oct 20254.40.60 AU
24P/Schaumasse9.80.59 AU1.18 AU8 Jan 20269.81.18 AU4 Jan 20269.80.59 AU
C/2025 T1 (ATLAS)12.62.00 AU1.25 AU2 Dec 20259.31.11 AU14 Nov 20259.51.02 AU
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann12.75.89 AU6.31 AU26 Apr 201912.65.80 AU9 Sep 201811.94.81 AU
240P/NEAT13.01.40 AU2.13 AU19 Dec 202512.82.12 AU24 Nov 202512.71.16 AU
235P/LINEAR13.52.25 AU1.98 AU22 Dec 202513.61.98 AU19 May 202614.61.32 AU
88P/Howell13.72.37 AU1.56 AU18 Mar 202612.41.36 AU10 Oct 202615.51.50 AU
3I/ATLAS13.91.97 AU2.85 AU29 Oct 20259.31.36 AU19 Dec 202512.31.80 AU
C/2025 R2 (SWAN)14.21.91 AU2.22 AU12 Sep 20256.50.50 AU20 Oct 20256.50.26 AU
C/2022 N2 (PANSTARRS)14.43.42 AU4.07 AU31 Jul 202514.53.83 AU9 Nov 202514.02.95 AU
A/2025 Y114.86.52 AU6.59 AU14 Oct 202711.32.60 AU22 Jun 202710.41.95 AU
C/2022 QE78 (ATLAS)15.04.67 AU5.54 AU12 Sep 202515.65.48 AU28 Jan 202615.04.60 AU
C/2024 T5 (ATLAS)15.15.52 AU5.61 AU6 May 202713.03.84 AU23 Dec 202612.43.17 AU
C/2024 J3 (ATLAS)15.35.67 AU4.75 AU25 Nov 202613.63.87 AU25 Jul 202613.53.45 AU
C/2025 L1 (ATLAS)15.42.22 AU1.68 AU12 Jan 202615.31.68 AU23 Mar 202614.41.10 AU
C/2023 R1 (PANSTARRS)15.64.58 AU3.68 AU13 Apr 202614.83.57 AU12 Jun 202614.32.63 AU
210P/Christensen16.11.13 AU1.03 AU22 Nov 20258.10.52 AU8 Nov 20258.40.43 AU
10P/Tempel16.82.85 AU2.40 AU2 Aug 20266.91.42 AU3 Aug 20266.90.41 AU
C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS)16.82.32 AU2.03 AU19 Apr 20266.90.50 AU26 Apr 20263.40.49 AU
141P/Machholz21.22.69 AU1.72 AU22 Apr 202610.50.81 AU22 Apr 202610.51.81 AU
141P-A/Machholz21.22.69 AU1.72 AU23 Apr 202610.50.81 AU24 Apr 202610.51.80 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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