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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/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS)8.92.48 AU2.19 AU19 Dec 20228.31.80 AU14 Jul 20228.81.81 AU
C/2020 V2 (ZTF)10.22.98 AU2.28 AU8 May 202310.32.23 AU17 Sep 20239.81.85 AU
C/2022 A2 (PANSTARRS)10.52.41 AU1.81 AU18 Feb 20239.61.74 AU17 Jan 20239.51.61 AU
C/2022 E3 (ZTF)10.51.74 AU1.62 AU12 Jan 20236.91.11 AU1 Feb 20235.10.28 AU
C/2019 L3 (ATLAS)11.94.65 AU5.27 AU9 Jan 20229.43.55 AU6 Jan 20229.42.58 AU
C/2020 K1 (PANSTARRS)12.13.21 AU3.10 AU9 May 202311.63.07 AU9 Jun 202311.52.47 AU
C/2019 U5 (PANSTARRS)12.12.63 AU3.62 AU29 Mar 202312.13.62 AU24 Mar 202312.12.63 AU
81P/Wild12.51.39 AU1.89 AU15 Dec 202211.61.60 AU18 May 202313.51.22 AU
237P/LINEAR12.91.81 AU2.02 AU14 May 202312.01.99 AU8 Jul 202311.81.06 AU
C/2019 T4 (ATLAS)13.24.19 AU4.88 AU8 Jun 202212.24.24 AU4 Apr 202211.93.33 AU
364P/PANSTARRS13.90.16 AU1.08 AU14 May 202315.00.80 AU7 Apr 202312.90.12 AU
C/2021 T4 (Lemmon)13.83.20 AU2.24 AU31 Jul 20238.71.48 AU20 Jul 20238.20.54 AU
C/2021 Y1 (ATLAS)14.02.48 AU2.07 AU30 Apr 202314.02.03 AU12 Dec 202214.21.69 AU
71P/Clark14.12.34 AU1.70 AU22 Jan 202313.61.59 AU14 Sep 202317.11.62 AU
C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS)14.84.36 AU4.25 AU14 Feb 20247.11.32 AU14 Mar 20247.21.30 AU
77P/Longmore14.91.47 AU2.35 AU3 Apr 202314.82.35 AU25 Apr 202314.81.37 AU
96P/Machholz15.01.57 AU1.43 AU31 Jan 20231.60.12 AU31 Jan 20231.60.89 AU
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann15.26.06 AU6.08 AU23 Apr 201915.25.78 AU9 Sep 201814.54.79 AU
P/2013 R3-A (Catalina-PANSTARRS)15.82.69 AU2.92 AU20 Mar 202414.92.20 AU6 Jul 202314.31.64 AU
P/2013 R3-B (Catalina-PANSTARRS)15.82.69 AU2.92 AU20 Mar 202414.92.20 AU22 Nov 202414.21.64 AU
126P/IRAS15.92.64 AU2.01 AU5 Jul 202313.91.71 AU18 Sep 202313.91.28 AU
C/2022 L2 (ATLAS)16.24.32 AU4.39 AU12 Mar 202412.42.69 AU5 Apr 202412.21.81 AU
C/2023 E1 (ATLAS)17.60.86 AU1.78 AU1 Jul 202314.61.03 AU18 Aug 202314.40.37 AU
103P/Hartley18.82.84 AU2.51 AU12 Oct 20237.11.06 AU26 Sep 20237.10.38 AU
185P/Petriew19.02.27 AU1.70 AU12 Jul 202311.70.93 AU21 Jun 202312.21.50 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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