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.
This section includes analyses of comets from 1994 using observations by the undersigned. In general, at least 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.
1994 was a very good year for comet observing despite the lack of naked eye comets. A total of 23 comets were observed visually. The author of this page made 164 observations (one observation per comet per night) of 22 comets on 53 nights of observing -- my second best year (out of 27 years). The summary for 1994 includes the peak (brightest) magnitude obtained by each comet.
The "v" indicates fainter than --> the comet was not seen.
This comet really shows the effects of the changing Earth-comet distance as its heliocentric brightness peaked near perihelion, but the observed brightness was greatest after perihelion (near the time of closest approach to the Earth). This comet also had at least two flares in brightness.
This comet had a distinct one magnitude flare in brightness.
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Charles S. Morris / csm@encke.jpl.nasa.gov