A Halley-type comet that goes round the Sun every 75 years, at perihelion about July 2061
Returns in 2061: perihelion about 28 July 2061.
Returns in 2061: perihelion about 28 July 2061.
From Lethem, under a dark interior sky: Returns in 2061: perihelion about 28 July 2061.
Perihelion is about 28 July 2061. These are the best nights of each stretch it is in reach from Georgetown, by JPL's catalogue law: an estimate made decades ahead, good to a magnitude or two at best.
9 June to 22 July 2061: best about 19 July 2061 at 4:46 am GYT, 17 degrees up in the north-east, with binoculars.
1 August to 11 September 2061: best about 1 August 2061 at 6:59 pm GYT, 13 degrees up in the north-west, with binoculars.
7 to 14 November 2061: best about 14 November 2061 at 4:49 am GYT, 15 degrees up in the east, with a camera.
| Night | Best time | Height and direction | Brightness | Moon lit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 July 2061 | 4:46 am GYT | 17 degrees, north-east | 2.9 (catalogue estimate) | 14% |
| 1 August 2061 | 6:59 pm GYT | 13 degrees, north-west | 2.3 (catalogue estimate) | 100% |
| 14 November 2061 | 4:49 am GYT | 15 degrees, east | 10.3 (catalogue estimate) | 9% |
Nobody has reported its brightness to COBS in the last 30 days, so every number here is a forecast.
No one has followed this comet through a return like this one, so the forecast is a catalogue estimate with a wide range.
A comet's light is spread over a fuzzy patch, so it is harder to see than a star of the same magnitude. That is why the gear rungs ask for a magnitude in hand.
1P/Halley passes closest to the Sun (perihelion) about 28 July 2061, at 0.593 au, where 1 au is the Earth's distance from the Sun. One orbit takes 75 years. The orbit is tilted 162.0 degrees to the Earth's and its eccentricity is 0.9666 (0 is a circle, 1 an open curve).
Orbit: NASA/JPL Horizons osculating elements, solution JPL#75, retrieved 8 October 2026. Positions on this page are computed from them in your browser and agree with JPL's own tables to half an arcminute.
The most famous comet returns every 76 years or so. It was last at perihelion in February 1986 and is next due in July 2061. Its dust gives us two meteor showers a year.
1P/Halley is a Halley-type comet that goes round the Sun every 75 years. The "P" in 1P marks a periodic comet, and the number is the order in which its return was first confirmed.
Its dust is the source of the Eta Aquariids and Orionids meteors: each year the Earth crosses the trail it has left along its orbit.
Orbits: NASA/JPL Horizons (Giorgini, JD and the JPL Solar System Dynamics Group), data retrieved 2026-10-08.
Catalogue brightness laws: JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Observed brightness: COBS Comet Observation Database (https://cobs.si) and its contributing observers, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Data updated 8 October 2026. "Early forecast" means: A catalogue estimate. Early predictions are often wrong in both directions.
Gear rungs and ranges are estimates for a typical observer: your eyes, your sky and the night will differ.