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Tracks of SOHO-observed comet groups in LASCO C3 and C2The area indicated on the below images (click for a larger image) shows where the comets from the four major SOHO-observed groups can be found in the LASCO images at the given time of year.FAQ: How do we know where the comets will be each month? A: A comet "group" can be considered as a continuous stream of objects all following the same path through space. This path does not change, but its location relative to Earth (and hence SOHO) does change, and so at different times of year the path of a given comet group will appear to be in a different location in space when viewed by SOHO. But every 12-months the path will appear to be where it was 12-months ago, as Earth/SOHO completes an orbit around the Sun. So from month-to-month, we know the direction from which the comets will be approaching (we just don't know when they'll be there!). Some notes: These images are designed to give an approximate idea of where to look for SOHO comets in any given month. Some group members may fall slightly outside the indicated area(s). Also, Marsden, Meyer and Kracht comets are occasionally seen in C3, but very rarely, hence their exclusion from the below images. Non-group comets can, and do, appear almost anywhere in the C2 and (less often) C3 images. Non-group comets are very rare, however. Newcomers to comet hunting are very strongly encouraged to stick to hunting for Kreutz-group comets until they are fully experienced. Kreutz group cometsLASCO C2 Kreutz-groupLASCO C3 Kreutz-group Non-Kreutz LASCO C2 comet groups(Note that March and September images are all missing here... not quite sure what happened to them! You can use Rainer Kracht's web page for those dates until I find the images.)LASCO C2 Meyer-group
LASCO C2 Marsden-group
LASCO C2 Kracht-group
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