Objects in your sky: Comets
2P/Encke
1980 Nov 23 perihelion[chart]
1984 Mar 12 perihelion[chart]
1987 Jun 30 perihelion[chart]
1990 Oct 17 perihelion[chart]
1994 Feb 03 perihelion[chart]
1997 May 23 perihelion[chart]
2000 Sep 09 perihelion[chart]
2003 Dec 28 perihelion[chart]
2007 Apr 15 perihelion[chart]
2010 Aug 03 perihelion[chart]
2013 Nov 20 perihelion[chart]
2017 Mar 08 perihelion[chart]
2020 Jun 25 perihelion[chart]
2023 Oct 14 perihelion[chart]
2027 Jan 30 perihelion[chart]
10P/Tempel
1983 Sep 29 perihelion[chart]
1994 Jun 14 perihelion[chart]
2010 Jul 08 perihelion[chart]
2021 Mar 24 perihelion[chart]
2026 Jul 31 perihelion[chart]
15P/Finlay
1982 Mar 01 perihelion[chart]
1988 Sep 22 perihelion[chart]
1995 Apr 16 perihelion[chart]
2001 Nov 05 perihelion[chart]
2008 May 29 perihelion[chart]
2014 Dec 20 perihelion[chart]
2021 Jul 14 perihelion[chart]
2028 Feb 03 perihelion[chart]
19P/Borrelly
1980 Dec 26 perihelion[chart]
1987 Nov 03 perihelion[chart]
1994 Sep 09 perihelion[chart]
2015 Mar 28 perihelion[chart]
2022 Feb 02 perihelion[chart]
2028 Dec 08 perihelion[chart]
21P/Giacobini-Zinner
1992 Jul 19 perihelion[chart]
2005 Aug 14 perihelion[chart]
2018 Sep 11 perihelion[chart]
2025 Mar 24 perihelion[chart]
22P/Kopff
1990 Apr 11 perihelion[chart]
1996 Aug 29 perihelion[chart]
2009 Jun 08 perihelion[chart]
2022 Mar 16 perihelion[chart]
2028 Aug 05 perihelion[chart]
24P/Schaumasse
1985 Mar 24 perihelion[chart]
2017 Nov 15 perihelion[chart]
2026 Jan 14 perihelion[chart]
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
1985 Jan 06 perihelion[chart]
1990 May 06 perihelion[chart]
1995 Sep 04 perihelion[chart]
2001 Jan 01 perihelion[chart]
2006 May 01 perihelion[chart]
2011 Aug 29 perihelion[chart]
2016 Dec 26 perihelion[chart]
2022 Apr 26 perihelion[chart]
2027 Aug 23 perihelion[chart]
46P/Wirtanen
1980 Nov 22 perihelion[chart]
2008 Jan 28 perihelion[chart]
2018 Dec 12 perihelion[chart]
2024 May 20 perihelion[chart]
2029 Oct 26 perihelion[chart]
58P/Jackson-Neujmin
1987 Jun 09 perihelion[chart]
1995 Sep 06 perihelion[chart]
2003 Dec 02 perihelion[chart]
2020 May 28 perihelion[chart]
2028 Aug 23 perihelion[chart]
62P/Tsuchinshan
1981 Mar 04 perihelion[chart]
2017 Nov 08 perihelion[chart]
2023 Dec 22 perihelion[chart]
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann
1995 Jun 14 perihelion[chart]
2017 Mar 17 perihelion[chart]
2022 Aug 24 perihelion[chart]
81P/Wild
1997 Apr 24 perihelion[chart]
2010 Feb 18 perihelion[chart]
2016 Jul 17 perihelion[chart]
2022 Dec 15 perihelion[chart]
2029 May 14 perihelion[chart]
88P/Howell
1982 Jun 06 perihelion[chart]
1987 Nov 25 perihelion[chart]
1993 May 17 perihelion[chart]
1998 Nov 04 perihelion[chart]
2004 Apr 26 perihelion[chart]
2009 Oct 16 perihelion[chart]
2015 Apr 07 perihelion[chart]
2020 Sep 26 perihelion[chart]
2026 Mar 17 perihelion[chart]
96P/Machholz
1980 Dec 08 perihelion[chart]
1986 Mar 16 perihelion[chart]
1991 Jun 23 perihelion[chart]
1996 Sep 28 perihelion[chart]
2002 Jan 04 perihelion[chart]
2007 Apr 12 perihelion[chart]
2012 Jul 19 perihelion[chart]
2017 Oct 25 perihelion[chart]
2023 Jan 31 perihelion[chart]
2028 May 08 perihelion[chart]
104P/Kowal
1981 Oct 15 perihelion[chart]
1999 Jan 14 perihelion[chart]
2004 Oct 12 perihelion[chart]
2016 Apr 12 perihelion[chart]
2022 Jan 11 perihelion[chart]
2027 Oct 11 perihelion[chart]
141P/Machholz
1988 Nov 23 perihelion[chart]
2004 Dec 04 perihelion[chart]
2020 Dec 17 perihelion[chart]
144P/Kushida
1986 Oct 21 perihelion[chart]
1994 Apr 04 perihelion[chart]
2001 Sep 16 perihelion[chart]
2009 Feb 28 perihelion[chart]
2016 Aug 12 perihelion[chart]
2024 Jan 26 perihelion[chart]
154P/Brewington
1992 Nov 14 perihelion[chart]
2013 Dec 04 perihelion[chart]
2024 Jun 14 perihelion[chart]
168P/Hergenrother
1985 Sep 11 perihelion[chart]
2012 Oct 23 perihelion[chart]
2019 Aug 06 perihelion[chart]
185P/Petriew
1990 Oct 17 perihelion[chart]
2001 Sep 14 perihelion[chart]
2018 Jan 27 perihelion[chart]
2023 Jul 13 perihelion[chart]
The position of each comet is calculated from orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC).
The brightnesses of comets are estimated from magnitude parameters published by the BAA Comet Section, where these are available. These are computed from the observations they receive from amateur astronomers.
Comets are intrinsically highly unpredictable objects, since their brightness depends on the scattering of sunlight from dust particles in the comet's coma and tail. This dust is continually streaming away from the comet's nucleus, and its density at any particular time is governed by the rate of sublimation of the ice in the comet's nucleus, as it is heated by the Sun's rays. It also depends on the amount of dust that is mixed in with that ice. This is very difficult to predict in advance, and can be highly variable even between successive apparitions of the same comet.
In consequence, while the future positions of comets are usually known with a high degree of confidence, their future brightnesses are not. For most comets, we do not publish any magnitude estimates at all. For the few comets where we do make estimates, we generally prefer the BAA's magnitude parameters to those published by the Minor Planet Center, since they are typically updated more often.