Bright comets in the coming 12 months
The below table lists all comets that are expected to become brighter than magnitude 14 in the coming 12 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 |
38P/Stephan-Oterma | 7.5 | 0.76 AU | 1.69 AU | 13 Nov 2018 | 6.8 | 1.58 AU | 15 Dec 2018 | 6.9 | 0.73 AU | 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann | 12.2 | 6.12 AU | 5.80 AU | 1 May 2019 | 12.3 | 5.80 AU | 9 Sep 2018 | 11.6 | 4.80 AU | C/2018 R3 (Lemmon) | 17.7 | 3.21 AU | 2.55 AU | 7 Jun 2019 | 11.6 | 1.28 AU | 24 May 2019 | 11.7 | 1.92 AU | C/2019 A9 (PANSTARRS) | 15.9 | 2.30 AU | 3.01 AU | 27 Jul 2019 | 12.5 | 1.43 AU | 4 Sep 2019 | 12.6 | 1.91 AU | C/2018 W2 (Africano) | 17.6 | 3.15 AU | 3.47 AU | 5 Sep 2019 | 10.2 | 1.47 AU | 27 Sep 2019 | 9.1 | 0.50 AU | A/2018 V3 | 20.4 | 3.01 AU | 3.52 AU | 10 Sep 2019 | 16.6 | 1.33 AU | 19 Aug 2019 | 13.7 | 0.37 AU | C/2018 N2 (ASASSN) | 14.4 | 4.36 AU | 4.32 AU | 12 Nov 2019 | 11.8 | 3.14 AU | 18 Oct 2019 | 11.7 | 2.23 AU | C/2020 A2 (Iwamoto) | 19.9 | 5.42 AU | 4.89 AU | 7 Jan 2020 | 10.3 | 0.98 AU | 20 Feb 2020 | 10.1 | 0.91 AU | C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS) | 15.8 | 5.11 AU | 5.67 AU | 6 May 2020 | 8.6 | 1.60 AU | 28 Dec 2019 | 9.8 | 1.52 AU | 322P/SOHO | 27.5 | 4.18 AU | 3.43 AU | 30 Aug 2019 | 6.0 | 0.05 AU | 25 Aug 2019 | 12.9 | 0.88 AU | 46P/Wirtanen | 7.2 | 0.14 AU | 1.09 AU | 11 Dec 2018 | 5.6 | 1.06 AU | 12 Dec 2018 | 5.6 | 0.07 AU | 21P/Giacobini-Zinner | 13.0 | 1.05 AU | 1.74 AU | 15 Sep 2018 | 7.3 | 1.01 AU | 16 Sep 2018 | 7.3 | 0.31 AU | 60P/Tsuchinshan | 13.8 | 1.14 AU | 1.67 AU | 2 Dec 2018 | 14.0 | 1.65 AU | 1 Mar 2019 | 14.0 | 0.91 AU | 78P/Gehrels | 13.9 | 2.45 AU | 2.16 AU | 8 Apr 2019 | 13.7 | 2.00 AU | 3 Sep 2018 | 14.6 | 1.65 AU | 260P/McNaught | 19.2 | 3.74 AU | 2.82 AU | 11 Sep 2019 | 12.2 | 1.42 AU | 3 Oct 2019 | 12.1 | 0.55 AU | 123P/West-Hartley | 13.8 | 1.59 AU | 2.17 AU | 26 Jan 2019 | 13.4 | 2.16 AU | 4 Mar 2019 | 13.2 | 1.23 AU | 64P/Swift-Gehrels | 11.9 | 0.74 AU | 1.53 AU | 7 Nov 2018 | 9.5 | 1.39 AU | 25 Oct 2018 | 9.6 | 0.45 AU | 68P/Klemola | 20.8 | 4.00 AU | 3.32 AU | 6 Nov 2019 | 13.9 | 1.81 AU | 15 Jul 2019 | 14.5 | 1.22 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.
