Annex: Table of famous comets (excluding numbered periodic comets) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C/1577 V1 1577 I 27 Oct. 1577 0.178 1.0 first parallax measurement C/1680 V1 "Kirch's comet" 1680 18 Dec. 1680 0.0062 1.000 sungrazer C/1729 P1 "Sarabat's comet" 1729 16 Jun. 1829 4.05 1.0 intrinsically very bright C/1743 X1 "Chéseaux's comet" 1744 1 Mar. 1744 0.222 1.0 D/1770 L1 Lexell 1770 I 14 Aug. 1770 0.67 0.786 5.6 approached Earth at 0.015 AU C/1811 F1 Great comet 1811 I 12 Sep. 1811 1.04 0.995 C/1819 N1 Great comet 1819 II 28 Jun. 1819 0.342 1.0 first obsevation of polarization C/1843 D1 Great March comet 1843 I 27 Feb. 1843 0.0055 0.999 513 sungrazer C/1858 L1 Donati 1858 VI 30 Sep. 1858 0.578 0.996 2000 C/1861 J1 Great comet 1861 II 12 Jun. 1861 0.82 0.985 409 C/1864 N1 Tempel 1864 II 16 Aug. 1864 0.91 0.996 first spectral observations C/1868 L1 Winnecke 1868 II 26 Jun. 1868 0.58 1.0 C/1874 H1 Coggia 1874 III 1874c 9 Jul. 1874 0.68 0.998 C/1881 K1 Great comet 1881 III 1881b 16 Jun. 1881 0.73 0.996 C/1882 R1 Great September comet 1882 II 1882b 17 Sep. 1882 0.00775 0.9999 759 sungrazer C/1887 B1 Great southern comet 1887 I 1887a 11 Jan. 1887 0.0048 1.0 sungrazer C/1901 G1 Great comet 1901 I 1901a 24 Apr. 1901 0.245 1.0 C/1907 L2 Daniel 1907 IV 1907d 4 Oct. 1907 0.512 0.999 C/1908 R1 Morehouse 1908 III 1908c 26 Dec. 1908 0.945 1.0007 C/1910 A1 Great January comet 1910 I 1910a 17 Jan. 1910 0.129 0.9999 C/1911 O1 Brooks 1911 V 1911c 28 Oct. 1911 0.49 0.997 C/1927 X1 Skjellerup-Maristany 1927 IX 1927k 18 Dec. 1927 0.176 0.9998 C/1940 R2 Cunningham 1941 I 1940c 16 Jan. 1941 0.368 1.0005 C/1947 X1 Southern comet 1947 XII 1947n 2 Dec. 1947 0.110 0.9995 C/1948 V1 Eclipse comet 1948 XI 1948l 27 Oct. 1948 0.135 0.99994 C/1956 R1 Arend-Roland 1957 III 1956h 8 Apr. 1957 0.316 1.0002 C/1957 P1 Mrkos 1957 V 1957d 1 Jul. 1957 0.355 0.9994 C/1969 Y1 Burnham 1960 II 1959k 29 Mar. 1960 0.355 0.9994 C/1961 R1 Humason 1962 VIII 1961e 10 Dec. 1962 2.13 0.990 C/1965 S1 Ikeya-Seki 1965 VIII 1965f 21 Oct. 1965 0.00779 0.99992 sungrazer C/1969 Y1 Bennett 1970 II 1969i 20 Mar. 1970 0.538 0.996 C/1973 E1 Kohoutek 1973 XII 1973f 28 Dec. 1973 0.142 1.000 international observation campaign C/1975 V1 West 1976 VI 1975n 25 Feb. 1976 0.197 1.000 C/1980 E1 Bowell 1982 I 1980b 12 Mar. 1982 3.364 1.057 active far from the Sun C/1983 J1 Sugano-Saigusa-Fujikawa 1983 V 1983e 1 Apr. 1983 0.471 1.000 approached Earth at 0.063 AU C/1983 H1 IRAS-Araki-Alcock 1983 VII 1983d 21 May 1983 0.991 0.990 approached Earth at 0.031 AU C/1983 O1 Cernis 1983 XII 1983l 21 Jul. 1983 3.33 1.002 active at more than 20 AU C/1986 P1 Wilson 1987 VII 1986l 20 Apr. 1987 1.200 1.0003 C/1989 X1 Austin 1990 V 1989c1 10 Apr. 1990 0.350 1.0002 C/1990 K1 Levy 1990 XX 1990c 24 Oct. 1990 0.939 1.0004 D/1993 F2 Shoemaker-Levy 9 1994 X 1993e broken by Jupiter and crashed into it C/1996 B2 Hyakutake 1 May 1996 0.230 0.9998 9000. approached Earth at 0.10 AU C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp 1 Apr. 1997 0.914 0.995 2400. extensive observational campaign C/1999 S4 LINEAR 26 Jul. 2000 0.765 0.9994 nucleus broke at perihelion C/2001 A2 LINEAR 24 May 2001 0.779 0.9993 successive nucleus breakings C/2002 T7 LINEAR 23 Apr. 2004 0.615 1.0006 C/2001 Q4 NEAT 15 May 2004 0.962 1.0006 C/2004 Q2 Machholz 24 Jan. 2005 1.205 0.9995 C/2006 P1 McNaught 12 Jan. 2007 0.171 1.0000 reached mv = -5 at perihelion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (a) official designation (b) old style designation (c) provisional designation (d) date of perihelion (e) perihelion distance [AU] (f) eccentricity (g) period (years) (h) remarks