Printable finder charts for 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann
| Color schemes | |||||
| Date span | Estimated date when brightest | Date of perigee | Date of perihelion | Dark on light | Light on dark |
| Apr 1990 – Oct 1990 | 11 Jul | 16 Jul | 29 Jun | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| May 2006 – Nov 2006 | 11 Aug | 4 Sep | 1 Aug | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Jan 2017 – Jul 2017 | 15 Apr | 23 Mar | 22 Apr | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Jun 2022 – Dec 2022 | 7 Sep | 2 Oct | 2 Sep | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Oct 2027 – Apr 2028 | 12 Jan | 7 Jan | 13 Jan | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
Credits
The charts above were generated using StarCharter, a command-line tool for producing vector-graphics charts of the night sky, written by the author and freely available for download.
The paths of the planets are taken from the DE430 planetary ephemeris computed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Planetary positions were extracted from the DE430 files using EphemerisCompute, which was also written by the author, and is also freely available for download.
The positions of asteroids are calculated from orbital elements published by Ted Bowell of the Lowell Observatory. Comet positions are computed from orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC).
Star positions and magnitudes were taken from the Hipparcos, Tycho, Tycho-2 and Gaia EDR3 catalogs.