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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 G3 (ATLAS)7.21.68 AU0.82 AU13 Jan 2025-4.30.09 AU13 Jan 2025-4.10.94 AU
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)10.42.49 AU1.80 AU27 Sep 20243.10.39 AU12 Oct 20240.30.47 AU
333P/LINEAR11.90.68 AU1.15 AU29 Nov 202411.71.11 AU9 Dec 202411.30.54 AU
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann12.75.74 AU6.25 AU4 May 201912.75.79 AU9 Sep 201812.04.80 AU
C/2022 E2 (ATLAS)13.03.08 AU3.77 AU14 Sep 202413.53.67 AU1 Dec 202412.92.99 AU
12P/Pons-Brooks14.14.35 AU3.55 AU21 Apr 20243.70.78 AU2 Jun 20245.51.55 AU
C/2024 S1 (ATLAS)disintegrated1.01 AU1.55 AU28 Oct 2024-0.01 AU23 Oct 20248.70.88 AU
C/2023 C2 (ATLAS)14.33.22 AU2.40 AU16 Nov 202414.12.37 AU20 Jul 202413.72.07 AU
21P/Giacobini-Zinner14.42.49 AU1.62 AU25 Mar 202511.31.01 AU21 Mar 202511.32.00 AU
C/2021 G2 (Atlas)14.55.72 AU5.04 AU9 Sep 202414.44.98 AU15 Apr 202413.94.24 AU
C/2024 M1 (ATLAS)14.60.82 AU1.75 AU20 Nov 202414.61.70 AU6 Dec 202414.30.74 AU
C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS)14.86.57 AU7.55 AU19 Dec 20228.51.80 AU13 Jul 20228.91.80 AU
C/2024 B1 (Lemmon)14.82.39 AU1.91 AU7 Oct 202413.81.63 AU15 Oct 202413.81.99 AU
C/2022 N2 (PANSTARRS)15.04.45 AU4.29 AU31 Jul 202514.23.83 AU9 Nov 202513.72.95 AU
48P/Johnson15.22.99 AU2.08 AU2 Mar 202514.92.01 AU28 Oct 202516.01.75 AU
C/2024 J2 (Wierzchos)15.52.48 AU2.12 AU19 Mar 202514.91.81 AU31 Aug 202516.22.17 AU
217P/LINEAR17.33.15 AU2.18 AU24 May 202513.51.23 AU2 Jan 202617.21.84 AU
323P/SOHO23.81.65 AU1.87 AU14 Mar 20256.10.04 AU16 Feb 202515.90.22 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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