Objects in your sky: Comets
2P/Encke
1980 Nov 18 perihelion[chart]
1984 Mar 07 perihelion[chart]
1987 Jun 26 perihelion[chart]
1990 Oct 14 perihelion[chart]
1994 Jan 31 perihelion[chart]
1997 May 20 perihelion[chart]
2000 Sep 07 perihelion[chart]
2003 Dec 26 perihelion[chart]
2007 Apr 14 perihelion[chart]
2010 Aug 01 perihelion[chart]
2013 Nov 19 perihelion[chart]
2017 Mar 08 perihelion[chart]
2020 Jun 25 perihelion[chart]
2023 Oct 14 perihelion[chart]
2027 Jan 31 perihelion[chart]
10P/Tempel
1983 Sep 25 perihelion[chart]
1994 Jun 11 perihelion[chart]
2010 Jul 06 perihelion[chart]
2021 Mar 24 perihelion[chart]
2026 Aug 01 perihelion[chart]
15P/Finlay
1982 Feb 24 perihelion[chart]
1988 Sep 17 perihelion[chart]
1995 Apr 12 perihelion[chart]
2001 Nov 02 perihelion[chart]
2008 May 28 perihelion[chart]
2014 Dec 20 perihelion[chart]
2021 Jul 14 perihelion[chart]
2028 Feb 04 perihelion[chart]
19P/Borrelly
1980 Dec 25 perihelion[chart]
1987 Nov 02 perihelion[chart]
1994 Sep 08 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 15 perihelion[chart]
2018 Sep 11 perihelion[chart]
2025 Mar 24 perihelion[chart]
22P/Kopff
1990 Apr 13 perihelion[chart]
1996 Aug 31 perihelion[chart]
2009 Jun 09 perihelion[chart]
2022 Mar 16 perihelion[chart]
2028 Aug 05 perihelion[chart]
24P/Schaumasse
1985 Mar 26 perihelion[chart]
2017 Nov 14 perihelion[chart]
2026 Jan 12 perihelion[chart]
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
1985 Jan 03 perihelion[chart]
1990 May 03 perihelion[chart]
1995 Sep 01 perihelion[chart]
2000 Dec 30 perihelion[chart]
2006 Apr 29 perihelion[chart]
2011 Aug 28 perihelion[chart]
2016 Dec 25 perihelion[chart]
2022 Apr 26 perihelion[chart]
2027 Aug 24 perihelion[chart]
46P/Wirtanen
1980 Nov 22 perihelion[chart]
1991 Oct 08 perihelion[chart]
1997 Mar 16 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
1995 Aug 21 perihelion[chart]
2003 Nov 22 perihelion[chart]
2020 May 28 perihelion[chart]
2028 Aug 28 perihelion[chart]
62P/Tsuchinshan
1980 Dec 29 perihelion[chart]
1987 Feb 20 perihelion[chart]
2017 Nov 01 perihelion[chart]
2023 Dec 24 perihelion[chart]
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann
1995 Jun 14 perihelion[chart]
2017 Mar 18 perihelion[chart]
2022 Aug 24 perihelion[chart]
81P/Wild
1997 Apr 22 perihelion[chart]
2010 Feb 17 perihelion[chart]
2016 Jul 17 perihelion[chart]
2022 Dec 15 perihelion[chart]
2029 May 14 perihelion[chart]
88P/Howell
1982 Jun 11 perihelion[chart]
1987 Nov 28 perihelion[chart]
1993 May 20 perihelion[chart]
1998 Nov 06 perihelion[chart]
2004 Apr 28 perihelion[chart]
2009 Oct 17 perihelion[chart]
2015 Apr 08 perihelion[chart]
2020 Sep 26 perihelion[chart]
2026 Mar 17 perihelion[chart]
96P/Machholz
1980 Dec 03 perihelion[chart]
1986 Mar 12 perihelion[chart]
1991 Jun 19 perihelion[chart]
1996 Sep 25 perihelion[chart]
2002 Jan 02 perihelion[chart]
2007 Apr 10 perihelion[chart]
2012 Jul 17 perihelion[chart]
2017 Oct 24 perihelion[chart]
2023 Jan 31 perihelion[chart]
2028 May 09 perihelion[chart]
104P/Kowal
1981 Oct 24 perihelion[chart]
1999 Jan 20 perihelion[chart]
2004 Oct 16 perihelion[chart]
2022 Jan 12 perihelion[chart]
2027 Oct 10 perihelion[chart]
141P/Machholz
1988 Nov 19 perihelion[chart]
2004 Dec 02 perihelion[chart]
2020 Dec 17 perihelion[chart]
2026 Apr 21 perihelion[chart]
144P/Kushida
1986 Oct 01 perihelion[chart]
1994 Mar 18 perihelion[chart]
2001 Sep 04 perihelion[chart]
2009 Feb 20 perihelion[chart]
2016 Aug 07 perihelion[chart]
2024 Jan 26 perihelion[chart]
154P/Brewington
1992 Nov 16 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 19 perihelion[chart]
2001 Sep 15 perihelion[chart]
2018 Jan 28 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.