Signs Case Study : Halleys Comet

Designation	Year BC/AD	Date of Last Perihelion	Visible Duration	Distance at Perihelion	Description
1P/−239 K1, −239	240 BC	15 May	25 May – 15 May		First confirmed sighting.
1P/−163 U1, −163	163 BC	20 May	12 November, 164 BC – 28 September 163 BC		Seen by Babylonians.
1P/−86 Q1, −86	87 BC	15 August	6 August – 19 August		Seen by the Babylonians and Chinese.
1P/−11 Q1, −11	12 BC	8 October	August – 10 October	0.16 AU	Watched by Chinese for two months.
1P/66 B1, 66	66	26 January	25 January – 26 January		‘A comet of the kind called Xiphias, because their tails appear to represent the blade of a sword’
1P/141 F1, 141	141	25 March	22 March – 25 March		Described by the Chinese as bluish-white in colour
1P/218 H1, 218	218	6 April	6 April – 17 May		Described by the Roman historian Dion Cassius as ‘a very fearful star’.
1P/295 J1, 295	295	7 April	7 April – 20 April		Seen in China, but not spectacular.
1P/374 E1, 374	374	13 February	13 February – 16 February	0.09 AU	Comet passed 13.5 million kilometres from Earth.
1P/451 L1, 451	451	3 July	28 June – 3 July		Appeared before the defeat of Attila the Hunat the Battle of Chalons.
1P/530 Q1, 530	530	15 November	27 September – 15 November		Noted in China and Europe, but not spectacular.
1P/607 H1, 607	607	26 March	15 March – 26 March	0.09 AU	Comet passed 13.5 million kilometres from Earth.
1P/684 R1, 684	684	26 November	2 October – 26 November		First known Japanese records of the comet. Seen in Europe and depicted 800 years later in the Nuremberg Chronicle.
1P/760 K1, 760	760	10 June	20 May – 10 June		Seen in China, at the same time as another comet.
1P/837 F1, 837	837	25 February	25 February – 28 February	0.03 AU	Closest-ever approach to the Earth (5 million km). Tail stretched halfway across the sky. Appeared as bright as Venus.
1P/912 J1, 912	912	27 July	18 July – 27 July		Seen briefly in China and Japan.
1P/989 N1, 989	989	2 September	2 September – 5 September		Seen in China, Japan, and (possibly) Korea.
1P/1066 G1, 1066	1066	25 March	January – 25 March	0.10 AU	Seen for over two months in China. Recorded in England and depicted on the later Bayeux tapestrywhich portrayed the events of that year.
1P/1145 G1, 1145	1145	19 April	15 April – 19 April		Depicted on the Eadwine Psalter, with the remark that such ‘hairy stars’ appeared rarely, ‘and then as a portent’.
1P/1222 R1, 1222	1222	10 September	10 September – 28 September		Described by Japanese astronomers as being ‘as large as the half Moon . . . Its colour was white but its rays were red’.
1P/1301 R1, 1301	1301	22 October	22 October – 31 October		Seen by Giotto di Bondone and included in his painting The Adoration of the Magi. Chinese astronomers compared its brilliance to that of the first-magnitude star Procyon.
1P/1378 S1, 1378	1378	9 November	9 November – 14 November		Passed within 10 degrees of the north celestial pole, more northerly than at any time during the past 2000 years. This is the last appearance of the comet for which Oriental records are better than Western ones.
1P/1456 K1, 1456	1456	8 January	8 January – 9 June		Observed in Italy by Paolo Toscanelli, who said its head was ‘as large as the eye of an ox’, with a tail ‘fan-shaped like that of a peacock’. Arabs said the tail resembled a Turkish scimitar. Turkish forces attacked Belgrade.
1P/1531 P1, 1531	1531	26 August	26 August		Seen by Peter Apian, who noted that its tail always pointed away from the Sun. This sighting was included in Halley’s table.
1P/1607 S1, 1607	1607	27 October	27 October		Seen by Johannes Kepler. This sighting was included in Halley’s table.
1P/1682 Q1, 1682	1682	15 September	15 September		Seen by Edmond Halley at Islington.
1P/1758 Y1, 1759 I	1758	13 March	13 March – 25 December		Return predicted by Halley. First seen by Johann Palitzsch on 1758 December 25.
1P/1835 P1, 1835 III	1835	16 November	August – 16 November		First seen at the Vatican Observatoryin August. Studied by John Herschelat the Cape of Good Hope.
1P/1909 R1, 1910 II, 1909c	1910	20 April	20 April – 20 May		Photographed for the first time. Earth passed through the comet’s tail on May 20.
1P/1982 U1, 1986 III, 1982i	1986	9 February	9 February	0.586 AU	Reached perihelion on February 9, closest to Earth (63 million km) on April 11. Nucleus photographed by the European space probe Giotto and the Russian probes Vega 1and 2.
	2061	28 July	28 July 2061		Next return of Halley’s comet.