There are three comets to look out for the next few months and into next year.
These are, Comet 2P / Encke, 29P / Schwassman-Wachmann and 103P / Hartley 2.
Here’s the details and map for Comet 29P / Schwassman-Wachmann.
29P / Schwassman-Wachmann unlike Comet 2P/ Encke is going to be a round for quite a while.
This a very exciting comet, as it has recently had an outburst. It does this fairly regularly.
It is usually around 16th magnitude, but these outbursts can make it a lot brighter.
I took the two images below on the 29th (left) and 25th (right) of October 2021, which shows a recent outburst.
This is a comet well worth keeping an eye on.
I managed to capture another outburst in December 2022.
The comet is tracing a slow retrograde loop between Gemini and Cancer.
Over the next couple of months it moves deep into Cancer, passing just north of the bright open star cluster Messier 44, The Beehive, during November and December, when it starts moving retrograde from the 11th of November.
At the end of March and the beginning of May it reverses direction again and starts it’s proper motion.
By this time, the comet is getting lower in the western sky.
The First Quarter Moon will be close by on the 15th of May.
Please Note: The comet looks bigger and brighter on my map than it will be in reality.
