Every comet bright enough for a telescope, with its brightness forecast and where to look, and the ones heading our way.
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Solid lines: where each comet came from in the last half year; dashed: where it goes next. Distances on a log scale.
Brighter than magnitude 15. Smaller numbers are brighter; 6 is about the naked-eye limit under a dark sky.
Comets forecast to brighten a lot within the year.
The biggest asteroids look like faint stars that move from night to night; Vesta can reach the naked-eye limit.
Comet brightness is a forecast, not a promise: some flare up, others fade or break apart. Forecasts here follow NASA/JPL's fits to what observers report.
The magnitude scale runs backwards: each step of 1 is 2.5 times fainter. Under a dark sky the eye reaches about 6, binoculars about 9.
A comet's light is spread out, so it looks fainter than a star of the same magnitude.
Orbits: IAU Minor Planet Center. Brightness: NASA/JPL SBDB where available. Updated every few hours.