Objects in your sky: Comets
2P/Encke
1980 Dec 07 perihelion[chart]
1984 Mar 25 perihelion[chart]
1987 Jul 11 perihelion[chart]
1990 Oct 27 perihelion[chart]
1994 Feb 12 perihelion[chart]
1997 May 31 perihelion[chart]
2000 Sep 16 perihelion[chart]
2004 Jan 02 perihelion[chart]
2007 Apr 20 perihelion[chart]
2010 Aug 06 perihelion[chart]
2013 Nov 22 perihelion[chart]
2017 Mar 10 perihelion[chart]
2020 Jun 25 perihelion[chart]
2023 Oct 22 perihelion[chart]
2027 Feb 10 perihelion[chart]
8P/Tuttle
1980 Nov 23 perihelion[chart]
1994 Jun 26 perihelion[chart]
2008 Jan 26 perihelion[chart]
2021 Aug 27 perihelion[chart]
10P/Tempel
1983 Sep 20 perihelion[chart]
1994 Jun 08 perihelion[chart]
2010 Jul 06 perihelion[chart]
2021 Mar 24 perihelion[chart]
2026 Aug 02 perihelion[chart]
15P/Finlay
1982 Mar 15 perihelion[chart]
1988 Oct 03 perihelion[chart]
1995 Apr 24 perihelion[chart]
2001 Nov 13 perihelion[chart]
2008 Jun 03 perihelion[chart]
2014 Dec 23 perihelion[chart]
2021 Jul 13 perihelion[chart]
2028 Feb 09 perihelion[chart]
19P/Borrelly
1995 Jan 01 perihelion[chart]
2001 Oct 21 perihelion[chart]
2022 Feb 01 perihelion[chart]
2028 Dec 11 perihelion[chart]
21P/Giacobini-Zinner
2005 Aug 09 perihelion[chart]
2018 Sep 10 perihelion[chart]
2025 Mar 25 perihelion[chart]
22P/Kopff
1996 Aug 19 perihelion[chart]
2009 Jun 03 perihelion[chart]
2022 Mar 18 perihelion[chart]
2028 Jul 02 perihelion[chart]
26P/Grigg-Skjellerup
1987 May 08 perihelion[chart]
2008 Apr 13 perihelion[chart]
2029 Mar 19 perihelion[chart]
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
1985 Mar 02 perihelion[chart]
1990 Jun 22 perihelion[chart]
1995 Oct 12 perihelion[chart]
2001 Jan 31 perihelion[chart]
2006 May 22 perihelion[chart]
2011 Sep 11 perihelion[chart]
2016 Dec 31 perihelion[chart]
2022 Apr 25 perihelion[chart]
2027 Aug 31 perihelion[chart]
46P/Wirtanen
1980 Nov 30 perihelion[chart]
1991 Oct 13 perihelion[chart]
1997 Mar 20 perihelion[chart]
2008 Jan 31 perihelion[chart]
2018 Dec 12 perihelion[chart]
2024 May 19 perihelion[chart]
2029 Oct 26 perihelion[chart]
58P/Jackson-Neujmin
1987 Jun 29 perihelion[chart]
1995 Sep 19 perihelion[chart]
2003 Dec 11 perihelion[chart]
2020 May 25 perihelion[chart]
2028 Sep 04 perihelion[chart]
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
1996 Oct 14 perihelion[chart]
2021 Nov 02 perihelion[chart]
2028 Apr 09 perihelion[chart]
71P/Clark
2006 May 20 perihelion[chart]
2017 Jun 30 perihelion[chart]
2023 Jan 22 perihelion[chart]
2028 Sep 22 perihelion[chart]
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann
1984 Jul 28 perihelion[chart]
1995 Jun 14 perihelion[chart]
2022 Aug 25 perihelion[chart]
2027 Dec 19 perihelion[chart]
81P/Wild
1997 May 03 perihelion[chart]
2010 Feb 22 perihelion[chart]
2022 Dec 15 perihelion[chart]
2029 May 14 perihelion[chart]
88P/Howell
1982 May 30 perihelion[chart]
1987 Nov 20 perihelion[chart]
1993 May 12 perihelion[chart]
1998 Nov 01 perihelion[chart]
2004 Apr 23 perihelion[chart]
2009 Oct 14 perihelion[chart]
2015 Apr 06 perihelion[chart]
2020 Sep 26 perihelion[chart]
2026 Mar 18 perihelion[chart]
96P/Machholz
1980 Oct 25 perihelion[chart]
1986 Feb 07 perihelion[chart]
1991 May 23 perihelion[chart]
1996 Sep 04 perihelion[chart]
2001 Dec 18 perihelion[chart]
2007 Apr 02 perihelion[chart]
2012 Jul 15 perihelion[chart]
2017 Oct 27 perihelion[chart]
2023 Jan 31 perihelion[chart]
2028 May 11 perihelion[chart]
104P/Kowal
1986 Dec 21 perihelion[chart]
1992 Oct 29 perihelion[chart]
2022 Jan 11 perihelion[chart]
2027 Oct 12 perihelion[chart]
141P/Machholz
1983 Sep 28 perihelion[chart]
1999 Sep 08 perihelion[chart]
2005 Jan 01 perihelion[chart]
2015 Aug 20 perihelion[chart]
2020 Dec 16 perihelion[chart]
2026 Apr 23 perihelion[chart]
154P/Brewington
1992 Nov 13 perihelion[chart]
2013 Dec 06 perihelion[chart]
2024 Jun 11 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.