There are several comets every year that are visible in binoculars or a small telescope. The recent passage of 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann was particularly interesting because the comet broke into pieces.
About the only bright comet in a regular, predictable orbit is Halley, and it won't be back for another fifty years. Comets like Hale-Bopp are rare, coming along maybe every twenty years on average. These large bright comets pass through our solar system after getting kicked out of the Oort cloud by some gravitational disturbance. The Oort cloud is a huge spherical cloud of cometary bodies that surrounds the sun at a distance of about a light year. It is too far away to be observable, so we have no idea when the next big comet will come. Hale-Bopp was discovered twenty months out, so you could get plenty of advance notice. However, other, smaller comets sometimes put on a spectacular display on short notice, if they pass very close to the Earth.
There are links below to some comet observation sites. You will see that there are always comets around, but most of them are strictly telescopic objects.
2006-06-21 17:06:40
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answer #1
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answered by injanier 7
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didnt hale bopp crash into jupiter, if so, then thats a very rare occurance. its impossible to tell when the next one will happen, because we cant predict when new comets will appear and stuff.
2006-06-22 00:37:18
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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