Oct 02 Bo Zhou reports a Meyer group comet in real time C2 images Oct 04 Bo Zhou reports a non group comet in real time C2 images Oct 05 Recovery of 1998 QP54 (P/LONEOS-Tucker) as 2015 S1 announced Oct 06 Masanori Uchina reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 images Oct 09 Catalina object 2015 RK245 not (yet) a comet Oct 11 Masanori Uchina reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 images Oct 12 Bo Zhou reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C2 images Oct 12 Recovery of 2003 WC7 (P/LINEAR-Catalina) as 2015 T1 reported Oct 13 Trygve Prestgard reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C2 images Oct 13 Discovery of 2015 T2 (PanSTARRS) reported Oct 14 Worachate Boonplod reports a non group comet in real time C3 images Oct 14 Masanori Uchina reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C2 images Oct 15 Discovery of 2015 TO19 (P/Lemmon-PanSTARRS) reported Oct 16 Discovery of 2015 T3 (P/PanSTARRS) reported Oct 16 Discovery of 2015 T4 (PanSTARRS) reported Oct 18 Worachate Boonplod reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 images Oct 19 Worachate Boonplod, Hanjie Tan and Zhijian Xu report a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 images Oct 20 Worachate Boonplod reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C2 images Oct 20 Worachate Boonplod reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 images Oct 21 Zhijian Xu reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C2 images Oct 22 Worachate Boonplod and Hanjie Tan report a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 images Oct 22 Zhijian Xu reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C2 images Oct 23 Zhijian Xu reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 images Oct 24 Recovery of 1999 V1 (Catalina) as 2015 U1 announced Oct 24 2015 TQ209 (LINEAR) found to have cometary features Oct 26 Bo Zhou reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C2 images Oct 27 Worachate Boonplod reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 images Oct 27 Update
If there have been no recent updates try The German comet group page
or Seiichi Yoshida's page for information or the
Liga Iberoamericana de Astronomia for observations.
Comet Magnitude Trend Observable When visible Last visual observation Catalina (2013 US10) 6.5 bright 10 S to 65 S early evening 2015 October 22P/Kopff 9.5 steady 30 N to 60 S evening 2015 October PanSTARRS (2014 S2) 9.5 bright 85 N to 15 N all night 2015 October 10P/Tempel 10 steady 35 N to 60 S evening 2015 October Lovejoy (2014 Q2) 11.5 fade 85 N to 10 S evening 2015 October 19P/Borelly 11.5 fade 80 N to 35 N early morning 2015 October PanSTARRS (2013 X1) 12 bright 85 N to 20 S best morning 2015 October 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 12 fade 70 N to 10 S morning 2015 October PanSTARRS (2014 Q1) 12.5 fade 40 S to 65 S early evening 2015 September 88P/Howell 12.5 fade 70 N to 50 S best morning 2015 September PanSTARRS (2014 W2) 13 bright 85 N to 15 N best morning 2015 October Spacewatch (2011 KP36) 13 steady 55 N to 60 S evening 2015 September 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 13 ? varies 20 N to 65 S evening 2015 October Jacques (2015 F4) 13.5 fade 85 N to 5 S evening 2015 October MASTER (2015 G2) 14 fade 80 N to 20 S morning 2015 OctoberThe observable region is an approximate indication of the latitude at which the comet may be seen. Under good conditions comets may be visible outside this range. The period when visible is for the UK if the comet is visible from the UK, otherwise for 40 S or the Equator as appropriate. The last visual observation is as received by the Section, details are often updated on the basis of observations published elsewhere. Details are normally updated at the beginning and middle of each month, but may be updated more frequently for bright comets. Beginners will often find comets fainter than about 7th magnitude difficult to locate - see below for information on positions and finder charts.
Planning aids and information for forthcoming comets
An explanation of the information in the ephemerides is given here. The following magnitude parameters, last updated 2015 October 16, are used in the ephemerides, but note that ephemerides are not updated every time the magnitude parameters are.
The following lists [updated 2015 August 31] give the ephemeris details, including the approximate current magnitude and local visibility for all the comets in the CBAT list for the UK, the equator and 40 south. CCD observers should try and observe any comets that have not recently been observed according to the CBAT but which are expected to be within range of their equipment. Negative observations are also useful.
For positions of newly discovered comets see the NEO confirmation page . You can also generate your own ephemerides and elements at the CBAT Minor Planet and Comet Ephemeris Service web page. The elements and ephemerides from the JPL Small-Body Database Browser give estimates of the errors, which are often far larger than might be thought from the accuracy of the elements given by the CBAT. Seiichi Yoshida has pages for currently visible comets, which include finder charts. Seiichi also has a comet rendezvous page, which lists conjunctions between comets, variable stars and nebulae and a comet recovery page, which lists periodic comets not yet recovered at the present return. The T3 project aims to discover comets amongst the population of asteroids influenced by Jupiter. Following a hack at the MPC, MPECs etc are now available at this site
A plot of recent search areas by professional teams looking for NEOS.
Download the January 2015 newsletter, which has a report of an RAS meeting, an article on Rosetta, plus the usual reviews and forecasts.
Download Richard Fleet's GraphDark software for graphically displaying comet (and other object) visibility. Latest version is 2.05, 2007 May.
Download William Schwittek's CometWin software for generating comet ephemerides and visibility diagrams. [Updated 2002 March 5]
Download Solex, N-body solar system dynamics software.
Images should be sent to Denis Buczynski at <cometobs [at] britastro.org> or to his personal email at <buczynski8166 [at] btinternet.com>. We would be particularly pleased to receive drawings, as well as CCD images and photographs. If you are submitting images, please use the standard name format for naming your files, for example 2001q4_20040515_shanklin.jpg.
Visual and visual equivalent magnitude observations should be sent to me at <jds [at] ast.com.ac.uk> in simple text format. Visual observers can use the BAA visual report form to log observations. To avoid the use of multiple formats the ICQ format is now standardised as the one to use for submission and archiving of observations, however the ICQ have not updated their observation keys since 2010. These additional keys are suggested for use when submitting observations to the BAA (updated 2015 February 1). Observations will continue to be published by Guy Hurst in The Astronomer magazine in TA format. There is also a visual drawing form. I have written a data entry program that creates a file with data in the ICQ format which you can send to me by email. It now runs under Windows and is available as a self extracting zip file. [New version, 2004 February 2]. I have also written a program to convert from ICQ to TA format.
The German comet group also has a computer program that will correctly format observations for the ICQ [2009 December]. Crni Vhr Observatory has launched the Comet Observation Database which allows entry of observations in ICQ format, and plots of light curves. The ICQ format uses special keys to code observation particulars.
Regular contributors include James Abbott, Jose Aguiar, Alexander Amorim, Nicolas Biver, Denis Buczynski, Paul Camilleri, Matyas Csukas, Roger Dymock, John Fletcher, Marco Goiato, Juan Gonzalez, Bjorn Granslo, Kevin Hills, Nick James, Werner Hasubick, Heinz Kerner, Carlos Labordena, Rolando Ligustri, Michael Mattiazzo, Maik Mayer, Antonio Milani, Martin Mobberley, Gabriel Oksa, Mieczyslaw Paradowski, Stuart Rae, Walter Robledo, Tony Scarmato, Willian Souza, David Strange and Seiichi Yoshida, several of whom contribute observations from their colleagues.
Warning I receive a large number of emails containing viruses or other junk. Please try and make clear that your message is legitimate, otherwise it may be deleted without being read. It is advisable to use your own name, rather than an alias, in the 'from' field and use an obvious, recent subject.
Many thanks to those that regularly access this page for your interest. If you have any comments, suggestions for improvement or find any problems, please email the comet section director, Jon Shanklin, at j.shanklin @ bas.ac.uk. If you need to phone me, my home number is +44 (0)1223 571250 or my BAS number is +44 (0)1223 221482. Snail mail will reach me at the British Antarctic Survey, Madingley Road, CAMBRIDGE CB3 0ET, England. For information about my work with BAS see my web page at BAS.