When is the next comet supposed to appear?

Answer 1

Most comets are not predictable. Except for Halleys Comet back in 1986 (which was barely visible to the naked eye), virtually every bright comet to grace our skies in the last 25 years has been a surprise...with little more than a few weeks notice that a spectacular show was in store. And in the case of McNaught a couple of months ago, it was literally a day-by-day event. Nobody had predicted it would become so bright.

The best thing to do is to regularly check sites like space.com and skyandtelescope.com.

Edit: Uh, not sure where deadman got his info...the next pass of Halleys Comet is in 2061. It's not expected to be all that spectacular. Halleys got its modern reputation because of its spectacular show in 1910, when we actually passed through the tail of the comet. It's not expected to provide that good a show again for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Answer 2

Jurgen H gave the facts but no explanation - wouldn't make a good teacher, would he?

The fact is there are a number of comets around at the moment, but all need a telescope to see them.

You want to know about ones you can see with the naked eye. Well, rogue comets that come in from long period orbits or from further out (the Oort Cloud) are not predictable. That's the nice thing about them. It means amateurs can still discover them and get their name tagged to them.

There are no naked eye comets coming at the moment.

Have a look at

http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html

Go look at the table at the bottom of the page. Look at the columns marked MAG - if the MAG is less than 5, the comet should be visible to your eye from a very dark place. You probably need MAG to be 3 or less to see it from a city. You will see that the lowest MAG value is about 7. (the higher the MAG number, the dimmer the object).

Just check the table from time to time and you will one day get a nice surprise.

Answer 3

Comet
Magnitude
Trend
Observable
When visible

McNaught (2006 P1) 3 fade 20 S to 60 S all night
SWAN (2006 M4) 11.5 fade Poor elongation
McNaught (2006 L2) 12 fade 90 N to 10 N morning
4P/Faye 12 fade 70 N to 45 S evening
Garrad (2006 L1) 13 fade 90 N to 10 S evening
LINEAR (2005 YW) 13 ? fade 0 N to 60 S best morning
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 13 ? varies 90 N to 30 S best evening
Siding Spring (2006 HR30) 14 fade 90 N to 15 S best morning
Levy (2006 T1) 14 ? fade 20 N to 60 S morning

Answer 4

the final era of Halley's orbit is seventy six years yet you may not calculate the dates of its reappearances by means of in simple terms subtracting multiples of seventy six years from 1986. The gravitational pull of the top-rated planets alters the orbital era from revolution to revolution. Nongravitational consequences (such because of the fact the reaction from gasses boiled off in the time of its passage close to the solar) additionally play an significant, yet smaller, functionality in changing the orbit. between the years 239 BC and 1986 advert the orbital era has numerous from seventy six.0 years (in 1986) to seventy 9.3 years (in 451 and 1066). That being mentioned, in early 2062...

Answer 5

I know that halley's comet will appear around 2076. This is one of those coments that is visibe to the naked eye unlike most comets.

Answer 6

Hi. It just did. http://spaceweather.com/ and it's green!