You can now buy the recently released book, Fall of a Thousand Suns: How Near Misses and Comet Impacts affected the Religious Beliefs of our Ancestors. It is available through iBooks and Amazon.
This website only lists information on modern-day comets and meteor showers. The book, however, thoroughly investigates how specific ancient impacts and near misses changed religious beliefs around the world.
Brightest Comets in 20th Century
Brightest Comets from 1935 to 1999
The International Comet Quarterly (ICQ) "is a non-profit scientific journal [ISSN 0736-6922] devoted to the observation, news, and study of comets; it serves as a link between amateur and professional astronomers in the exchange of useful observations (following a standardized format) and news regarding all comets." Recently, it compiled a list of the brightest comets in the 20th century...or at least dating back to 1935. These comets are ranked below in order of apparent magnitude.
| -10.0 | C/1965 S1 | Comet Ikeya–Seki |
| -3.0 | C/1975 V1 | Comet West |
| -3.0 | C/1947 X1 | Southern Comet |
| -1.0 | C/1948 V1 | Eclipse Comet |
| -0.8 | C/1995 O1 | Comet Hale-Bopp |
| -0.5 | C/1956 R1 | Comet Arend-Roland |
| 0 | C/1996 B2 | Comet Hyakutake |
| 0 | C/1969 Y1 | Comet Bennett |
| 0 | C/1973 E1 | Comet Kohoutek |
| 0 | C/1962 C1 | Comet Seki-Lines |
| 0.5 | C/1998 J1 | Comet SOHO |
| 1.0 | C/1957 P1 | Comet Mrkos |
| 1.0 | C/1998 J1 | Comet White-Ortiz-Bolelli |
| 1.7 | C/1983 H1 | Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock |
| 2.0 | C/1941 B2 | Comet de Kock-Paraskevopoulos |
| 2.4 | C/1982 U1 | Halley's Comet |
| 2.4 | 17P | Comet Holmes |
| 2.7 | C/1964 N1 | Comet Ikeya |
| 2.8 | C/1989 W1 | Comet Aarseth-Brewington |
| 2.8 | C/1962 A1 | Comet Ikeya |
| 3.0 | C/2001 A2 | Comet LINEAR |
| 3.3 | C/1936 K1 | Comet Peltier |
| 3.5 | C/2004 Q2 | Comet Machholz |
| 3.5 | C/1942 X1 | Comet Whipple-Fedtke-Tevzadze |
| 3.5 | C/1940 R2 | Comet Cunningham |
| 3.5 | C/1939 H1 | Comet Jurlof-Achmarof-Hassel |
| 3.5 | C/1959 Y1 | Comet Burnham |
| 3.5 | C/1969 T1 | Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka |
| 3.5 | C/1980 Y1 | Comet Bradfield |
| 3.5 | C/1961 O1 | Comet Wilson-Hubbard |
| 3.5 | C/1955 L1 | Comet Mrkos |
| 3.6 | C/1990 K1 | Comet Levy |
| 3.7 | C/1975 N1 | Comet Kobayashi-Berger-Milon |
| 3.9 | C/1974 C1 | Comet Bradfield |
| 3.9 | C/1937 N1 | Comet Finsler |
This website also contains a list of the brightest comets in the 21st century.
Related Links:
- Comets in 2013
- Comets in 2014
- Comets in 2015
- Comets in 2016
- Comets in 2017
- Comets in 2026
- List of Periodic Comets
- List of Non-Periodic Comets
- Brightest Comets in 21st Century
- Brightest Comets in History