Printable finder charts for 96P/Machholz
| Color schemes | |||||
| Date span | Estimated date when brightest | Date of perigee | Date of perihelion | Dark on light | Light on dark |
| Aug 1980 – Feb 1981 | 12 Nov | 10 Nov | 12 Nov | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Nov 1985 – May 1986 | 22 Feb | 23 Feb | 22 Feb | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Mar 1991 – Sep 1991 | 3 Jun | 1 Jul | 3 Jun | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Jun 1996 – Dec 1996 | 12 Sep | 10 Aug | 12 Sep | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Sep 2001 – Mar 2002 | 22 Dec | 21 Dec | 22 Dec | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Jan 2007 – Jul 2007 | 3 Apr | 27 May | 2 Apr | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Apr 2012 – Oct 2012 | 12 Jul | 22 Jun | 12 Jul | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Jul 2017 – Jan 2018 | 21 Oct | 15 Oct | 21 Oct | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Nov 2022 – May 2023 | 31 Jan | 31 Jan | 31 Jan | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG | PNGPDF-RGBPDF-CMYKSVG |
| Feb 2028 – Aug 2028 | 11 May | 16 Jun | 11 May | 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.