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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/2020 T2 (Palomar)10.71.43 AU2.13 AU11 Jul 202110.62.05 AU12 May 202111.01.41 AU
10P/Tempel11.62.13 AU1.56 AU24 Mar 202110.81.41 AU3 Nov 202115.11.61 AU
C/2019 L3 (ATLAS)12.24.96 AU4.11 AU9 Jan 20229.63.55 AU6 Jan 20229.62.58 AU
C/2020 R4 (ATLAS)12.51.28 AU1.70 AU1 Mar 202110.81.03 AU23 Apr 20219.20.46 AU
C/2020 J1 (SONEAR)13.02.39 AU3.37 AU18 Apr 202113.13.36 AU16 May 202113.02.37 AU
7P/Pons-Winnecke13.30.47 AU1.23 AU27 May 202113.31.23 AU12 Jun 202113.20.44 AU
246P/NEAT13.32.11 AU2.91 AU22 Feb 202114.12.86 AU1 Jul 202113.31.94 AU
C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS)13.45.86 AU6.28 AU19 Dec 20226.91.80 AU14 Jul 20227.71.81 AU
28P/Neujmin13.62.61 AU1.81 AU11 Mar 202112.71.58 AU6 Nov 202116.62.22 AU
C/2020 K5 (PANSTARRS)13.81.56 AU1.54 AU5 Jun 202113.91.54 AU19 May 202113.91.55 AU
C/2019 T4 (ATLAS)13.95.37 AU5.25 AU9 Jun 202211.64.24 AU4 Apr 202211.33.33 AU
4P/Faye14.12.32 AU1.94 AU9 Sep 202111.71.62 AU5 Dec 202111.80.94 AU
C/2021 D1 (SWAN)14.32.49 AU1.71 AU27 Feb 202111.00.90 AU14 Mar 202111.21.68 AU
C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS)14.53.81 AU4.74 AU4 May 20208.61.62 AU28 Dec 20199.81.52 AU
C/2019 N1 (ATLAS)14.52.86 AU2.77 AU1 Dec 202012.81.70 AU8 Feb 202112.61.91 AU
8P/Tuttle14.62.52 AU1.69 AU27 Aug 20219.51.03 AU12 Sep 20219.71.81 AU
C/2019 F1 (ATLAS-Africano)14.73.10 AU3.60 AU22 Jun 202114.73.60 AU21 Jun 202114.73.05 AU
15P/Finlay14.71.16 AU1.21 AU13 Jul 202113.90.99 AU17 Jun 202114.01.09 AU
C/2020 F5 (MASTER)14.94.31 AU4.36 AU24 Mar 202115.14.33 AU21 Aug 202114.63.57 AU
342P/SOHO14.92.14 AU2.65 AU19 Oct 2021-3.90.05 AU23 Aug 202110.30.83 AU
C/2021 A7 (NEOWISE)14.92.39 AU2.06 AU15 Jul 202115.11.97 AU5 Apr 202115.22.14 AU
C/2018 U1 (Lemmon)15.24.25 AU5.14 AU2 Nov 202115.84.99 AU18 Jun 202115.14.14 AU
142P/Ge-Wang15.43.01 AU2.52 AU12 May 202115.52.51 AU16 Oct 202114.71.82 AU
97P/Metcalf-Brewington15.83.55 AU3.17 AU15 Feb 202213.92.57 AU18 Oct 202113.21.73 AU
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko16.12.18 AU2.17 AU2 Nov 202110.01.21 AU12 Nov 202110.00.42 AU
19P/Borrelly18.02.63 AU2.85 AU1 Feb 20227.91.31 AU11 Dec 20218.91.17 AU
6P/d'Arrest18.10.95 AU1.85 AU17 Sep 202112.41.35 AU2 Aug 202113.40.75 AU
132P/Helin-Roman-Alu18.22.20 AU2.33 AU13 Nov 202114.11.69 AU9 Oct 202113.90.74 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.