Latest Discoveries Jan 13 The January 2015 edition of The Comet's Tale is publishedJan 15 Discovery of 2015 A1 (PanSTARRS) reportedJan 16 Discovery of 2015 A2 (PanSTARRS) reportedJan 18 Worachate Boonplod reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 imagesJan 21 Worachate Boonplod reports a non-group comet in real time C3 imagesJan 22 Zhijian Xu reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 imagesJan 25 Worachate Boonplod reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 imagesJan 25 Discovery of 2015 A3 (P/PanSTARRS) reportedJan 26 Worachate Boonplod reports a Meyer group comet in real time C2 imagesJan 28 Richard Miles reports a significant outburst on 17P/HolmesJan 31 Zhijian Xu reports a Meyer group comet in real time C2 imagesJan 31 Szymon Liwo reports a Kreutz group comet in real time C3 imagesFeb 04 Discovery of 2015 B1 (PanSTARRS) reportedFeb 04 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.

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 February 1, are used in the ephemerides, but note that ephemerides are not updated every time the magnitude parameters are.

The following lists [updated 2015 February 1] 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]

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BAA Comet section - Institute of Astronomy