Bright comets in the sky

In this month I congratulate with Rose Matheny for her first two comets discovered in a couple of days. She is a research astronomer for the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) and after discoverer and confirming asteroids finally arrive the honor to give a name to a solar object…exactly two!
The first one it was discovered on 6^th October while the other one was discovered on 10^th October, the two comets were announced on CBET 4328 and CBET 4330.
Finally, as each month the PANSTARRS survey discovered another comet, C/2016T3.

Giuseppe Pappa

With the last two comets discovered in the last two months of 2016, C/2016U1 (NEOWISE) and C72016X1 (Lemmon), the total number of comet discovered in 2016 is 36 plus 1 comet discovered on STEREO images(I didn’t count the SOHO comet because they are not officially numbered at the moment). The C/2016 U1 became in the last days of the year a binocular object in the morning sky.

About the statistical analysis, the PanSTARRRS survey was the most prolific comet survey with 20 comet discoveries, while only one comet was discovered by an amateur astronomer, C/2016R3 by G.Borisov from Russia.

I create a little infographics about comets discoverers by Country. I considered both professionist and amateur astronomer and SOHO comet discoverer.

Giuseppe Pappa