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) | 2.1 | 1.08 AU | 0.32 AU | 13 Jan 2025 | -4.1 | 0.09 AU | 13 Jan 2025 | -3.9 | 0.94 AU | C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) | 11.6 | 3.08 AU | 2.26 AU | 27 Sep 2024 | 3.1 | 0.39 AU | 12 Oct 2024 | 0.3 | 0.47 AU | 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann | 12.5 | 5.39 AU | 6.26 AU | 4 May 2019 | 12.6 | 5.79 AU | 9 Sep 2018 | 11.9 | 4.80 AU | 21P/Giacobini-Zinner | 13.2 | 2.25 AU | 1.35 AU | 25 Mar 2025 | 11.3 | 1.01 AU | 21 Mar 2025 | 11.3 | 2.00 AU | C/2022 E2 (ATLAS) | 13.3 | 3.49 AU | 3.84 AU | 14 Sep 2024 | 13.5 | 3.67 AU | 1 Dec 2024 | 12.9 | 2.99 AU | C/2021 G2 (Atlas) | 14.4 | 5.36 AU | 5.09 AU | 9 Sep 2024 | 14.4 | 4.98 AU | 15 Apr 2024 | 13.9 | 4.24 AU | C/2023 C2 (ATLAS) | 14.5 | 3.41 AU | 2.47 AU | 16 Nov 2024 | 14.1 | 2.37 AU | 20 Jul 2024 | 13.7 | 2.07 AU | 12P/Pons-Brooks | 14.6 | 4.45 AU | 3.87 AU | 21 Apr 2024 | 3.7 | 0.78 AU | 2 Jun 2024 | 5.5 | 1.55 AU | 48P/Johnson | 15.1 | 3.01 AU | 2.03 AU | 2 Mar 2025 | 14.9 | 2.01 AU | 28 Oct 2025 | 16.0 | 1.75 AU | 217P/LINEAR | 16.6 | 2.90 AU | 1.93 AU | 24 May 2025 | 13.5 | 1.23 AU | 2 Jan 2026 | 17.2 | 1.84 AU | 323P/SOHO | 21.1 | 0.82 AU | 1.42 AU | 14 Mar 2025 | 6.1 | 0.04 AU | 16 Feb 2025 | 15.9 | 0.22 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.
