Celestial calendar COMETS In 2001 the 21 periodical comets will return to perihelions. But they can not be visible with the naked eye.

Name	Perihelion Time	Period (years)	Number of appearance	Perihelion Distance (a.u.*)	Eccentricity	Magnitude (max)
47P/Ashbrook-Jackson**	Jan.6	7.46	7	2.30	0.40	11.0m
41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak	Jan.7	5.43	8	1.05	0.66	11.8m
74P/Smirnova-Chernykh	Jan.16	8.49	4	3.55	0.15	11.5m
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3	Jan.28	5.36	4	0.94	0.69	>13m
P/1992 G3 (Mueller 4)**	Feb.8	9.01	1	2.65	0.39	12.4m
44P/Reinmuth 2	Feb.20	6.63	8	1.89	0.46	>13m
113P/Spitaler**	Feb.26	7.09	2	2.13	0.42	>13m
75P/Kohoutek	Feb.27	6.68	3	1.79	0.50	11.0
110P/Hartley 3**	Mar.21	6.88	2	2.48	0.31	11.2m
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova	Mar.30	5.25	9	0.53	0.82	9.3m
97P/Metcalf-Brewington	Apr.10	10.51	2	2.60	0.46	>13m
P/1993 X1 (Kushida-Muramatsu)	Apr. 29	7.44	1	2.75	0.28	>16m
24P/Schaumasse	May 3	8.25	9	1.20	0.70	10.7m
61P/Shajn-Schaldach	May 9	7.46	5	2.33	0.39	12.4
51P/Harrington**	June 6	6.77	5	1.57	0.56	12.7m
86P/Wild 3	June 19	6.93	3	2.31	0.36	11.0m
P/1994 A1 (Kushida)**	June 28	7.58	1	1.43	0.63	>13m
16P/Brooks 2	July 20	6.86	14	1.83	0.49	12.5m
82P/Gehrels 3	Sept.3	8.45	3	3.63	0.13	12.3m
19P/Borrelly	Sept.15	6.86	12	1.36	0.62	9.6m
P/1987 Q3 (Helin)***	Sept.25	14.06	1	2.53	0.57	>14m

* a.u. - astronomical unit: middle distance from Earth to Sun, equal 149.6 millions km. ** Jupiter comet family *** Saturn comet family

Glossary Eccentricity: a parameter that specifies the shape of a conic section; one of the standard elements used to describe an elliptic orbit. Perihelion:: the point at which a body in orbit around the Sun most closely approaches the Sun. Period: the interval of time required to complete one revolution in an orbit or one cycle of a periodic phenomenon, such as a cycle of phases.

Note: All the times in this page are expressed in universal time (UT). For Kyiv Local_Time=UT+2h (and Local_Time=UT+3h for summer time).