Comet Light Curves

General Comments

These light curves are provided for educational purposes to illustrate how different comets vary in brightness. They are not intended to represent a final scientific analysis that might be published in a journal.

You are welcome to use these light curves, providing proper credit is given. Unless otherwise noted, these light curves have been prepared by Charles S. Morris. These plots are all .gif files.

The plots given here represent the total integrated brightness of the coma (or head) of the comet as a function of time or distance to the Sun. In general, two or three plots are given for each comet. These include the observed magnitude of the comet plotted as a function of time (days from perihelion passage); the heliocentric magnitude of the comet, which is the observed magnitude corrected for the changing Earth-comet distance, plotted as a function of time; and the heliocentric magnitude plotted as a function of the log of the comet's distance from the Sun. If the brightness data follows a power-law, the data in this last type of plot will follow a straight line. Two parameters can be derived from the third plot: an "absolute" magnitude, the heliocentric brightness at 1 AU from the Sun, and n, the power-law exponent. The slope of the data will be 2.5 x n. The absolute magnitude is by no means absolute either during a given apparition or between apparitions. However, it is a means to statistically intercompare different comets.

Light Curves by Year

Unless otherwise noted, all the observations are by the undersigned. I am working on analyzing all my observations (dating back to 1970). When each year is complete, I will post the light curves for that year on a separate page. (Note that a given comet's light curve will be posted under the year that it reaches perihelion.) Not all comets are observed for a sufficient period of time and/or have enough observations for the creation of a light curve. Currently, analyses have been performed for the years listed below.

Comets of 1993

Comets of 1994