Comet Hale–Bopp is a long-period comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades.
Comet Ikeya–Seki, formally designated C/1965 S1, 1965 VIII, and 1965f, was a long-period comet discovered independently by Kaoru Ikeya and Tsutomu Seki. First observed as a faint telescopic object on September 18, 1965, the first calculations of its orbit suggested that on October 21, it would pass just 450,000 km (280,000 mi) above the Sun's surface, and would probably become extremely bright.
Comet Pojmański is a non-periodic comet discovered by Grzegorz Pojmański on January 2, 2006, and formally designated C/2006 A1. Pojmański discovered the comet at Warsaw University Astronomic Observatory using the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile as part of the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS). Kazimieras Cernis at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy at Vilnius, Lithuania, located it the same night and before the announcement of Pojmański's discovery, in ultraviolet images taken a few days earlier by the SWAN instrument aboard the SOHO satellite. A pre-discovery picture was later found from December 29, 2005.
Comet Holmes is a periodic comet in the Solar System, discovered by the British amateur astronomer Edwin Holmes on November 6, 1892. Although normally a very faint object, Holmes became notable during its October 2007 return when it temporarily brightened by a factor of a million, in what was the largest known outburst by a comet, and became visible to the naked eye. It also briefly became the largest object in the Solar System, as its coma expanded to a diameter greater than that of the Sun. Between 1857–2106 perihelion remains between 2.05–2.36 AU.
Comet 96P/Machholz or 96P/Machholz 1 is a short-period sungrazing comet discovered on May 12, 1986, by amateur astronomer Donald Machholz on Loma Prieta peak, in central California using 130 millimetres (5.1 in) binoculars. On June 6, 1986, 96P/Machholz passed 0.404 AU from the Earth. 96P/Machholz last came to perihelion on January 31, 2023. The comet has an estimated diameter of around 6.4 km (4.0 mi).
C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is a long-period comet discovered on 17 August 2014 by Terry Lovejoy using a 0.2-meter (8 in) Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. It was discovered at apparent magnitude 15 in the southern constellation of Puppis. It is the fifth comet discovered by Terry Lovejoy. Its blue-green glow is the result of organic molecules and water released by the comet fluorescing under the intense UV and optical light of the Sun as it passes through space.
2015 TB145 is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group, approximately 650 meters (2,000 feet) in diameter. It safely passed 1.27 lunar distances from Earth on 31 October 2015 at 17:01 UTC, and passed by Earth again in November 2018.
ASASSN-15lh is an extremely luminous astronomical transient event discovered by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN), with the appearance of a superluminous supernova event. It was first detected on June 14, 2015, located within a faint galaxy in the southern constellation Indus, and was the most luminous supernova-like object ever observed. At its peak, ASASSN-15lh was 570 billion times brighter than the Sun, and 20 times brighter than the combined light emitted by the Milky Way Galaxy. The emitted energy was exceeded by PS1-10adi.
The All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) is an automated program to search for new supernovae and other astronomical transients, headed by astronomers from the Ohio State University, including Christopher Kochanek and Krzysztof Stanek. It has 20 robotic telescopes in both the northern and southern hemispheres. It can survey the entire sky approximately once every day.
V5856 Sagittarii, also known as Nova Sagittarii 2016 Number 4, was the 4th and brightest nova that occurred in the constellation Sagittarius during 2016. It was discovered by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae on 25.02 October 2016, at which time it had an apparent visual magnitude of 13.7. It was independently discovered by Yukio Sakurai of Mito, Ibaraki, Japan on 26.38 October 2016, by which time it had reached magnitude 10.4. It reached its peak brightness of magnitude 5.4, making it visible to the naked eye, on 8 November 2016. The nova occurred within a region of the sky monitored by the OGLE microlensing experiment, and that group reported that no star brighter than magnitude 22 was seen at the nova's position prior to its eruption.
V407 Lupi, also known as Nova Lupi 2016, was a bright nova in the constellation Lupus discovered by All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) on 24.00 September 2016. At the time of its discovery, it had an apparent visual magnitude of 9.1. The ASAS-SN team reported that no object at the nova's location brighter than magnitude 17.5 was seen on images taken four days earlier. Wildly incorrect coordinates were published in the announcement telegram, but corrected in a subsequent telegram. It reached a peak brightness of magnitude 5.6, faintly visible to the naked eye, on 25 September 2016.
126P/IRAS is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 13.4 years. It was discovered in images taken by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) on 28 July 1983 by J. Davies. The discovery was confirmed with images taken with the 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory.
2017 VR12 is a sub-kilometer asteroid with a somewhat elongated and angular shape, approximately 160 meters (500 feet) in diameter. It is classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo or Amor group. The V-type asteroid has a rotation period of approximately 1.5 hours. It was first observed on 10 November 2017 by the 60-inch Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.
V906 Carinae, also known as Nova Carinae 2018, was a nova in the Milky Way galaxy which appeared in the constellation Carina, near the 5th magnitude star HD 92063. It was discovered on images taken on 20.32 March 2018 by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN] telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The ASAS-SN group assigned the name ASASSN-18fv to the object. The discovery image was saturated, allowing researchers to determine only that the object was brighter than apparent magnitude 10. An earlier image obtained by ASAS-SN on 26.32 March 2018 showed the nova was a magnitude ~10.4 object at that time, and the object was not detected on ASAS-SN images taken on 15.34 March 2018 and earlier.
C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) was a comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered by the ATLAS survey on December 28, 2019. Early predictions based on the brightening rate suggested that the comet could become as bright as magnitude 0 matching the brightness of Vega. It received widespread media coverage due to its dramatic increase in brightness and orbit similar to the Great Comet of 1844, but on March 22, 2020, the comet started disintegrating. Such fragmentation events are very common for Kreutz Sungrazers. The comet continues to fade and did not reach naked eye visibility. By mid-May, comet ATLAS appeared very diffuse even in a telescope. C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) has not been seen since May 21, 2020.
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a non-periodic comet from the Oort cloud that was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) on 2 March 2022. The comet has a bright green glow around its nucleus, due to the effect of sunlight on diatomic carbon and cyanogen. The comet's systematic designation starts with C to indicate that it is not a periodic comet, and "2022 E3" means that it was the third comet to be discovered in the first half of March 2022.
Tenagra Observatory and Tenagra Observatory II are astronomical observatories in Cottage Grove, Oregon and Arizona. The observatories house heavily automated robotic telescopes.
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) also known as the Great Comet of 2024 is a comet from the Oort cloud discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China on 9 January 2023 and independently found by ATLAS South Africa on 22 February 2023. The comet passed perihelion at a distance of 0.39 AU on 27 September 2024, when it became visible to the naked eye. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS peaked its brightest magnitude on 9 October, shortly after passing the Sun, with a magnitude of −4.9 per reported observations at the Comet Observation Database (COBS).
C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 85 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with an orbital period of between 20 and 200 years. The comet was discovered on 1 March 2023 by ATLAS South Africa. Upon discovery, the comet had an apparent magnitude of about 19 and had a very condensed coma. The comet was subsequently found in images obtained by other observatories back on 25 December 2022.
C/2018 N2 (ASASSN) is the second of two comets discovered by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae after C/2017 O1. It is a hyperbolic comet that reached perihelion in November 2019, and as a result, it may never return to the inner Solar System.
