History has taught us that the most interesting and impressive comets are usually the ones that were not predicted and came ‘out-of-the-blue’. There have been some truly spectacular comets throughout history. Below is a selected list of some notable bright comets through history (in order of brightness by the Ptolemy scale).
The only problem with brightness comparison is that comets were not given an apparent magnitude until the 20th century, so a lot of the comets before this time are hard to put in to ranking order with absolute confidence. The estimations however are probably pretty close. Estimations are shown with an asterisk*
| Comet | Peak Mag. | Max. Tail Length | First Sighted | Visible (Naked Eye) |
| C/1882 R1 (Great Comet of 1882) | -15* | 15-20 degrees?* | 01 Sep 1882 | Sep 1882 – Feb 1883 |
| C/1965 S1 (Ikeya-Seki) | -10 | 35 degrees | 18 Sep 1965 | Sep-Dec 1965 |
| C/1910 A1 (Great Comet of 1910) | -7* | 50 degrees | 12 Jan 1910 | Jan – ? 1910 |
| C/1743 X1 (Great Comet of 1744) | -7* | unknown (6 tails!) | 29 Nov 1743 | Nov 1743 – Mar 1744 |
| C/1927 X1 (Skjellerup-Maristanny) | -6* | unknown | 28 Nov 1927 | Nov 1927 – ? |
| C/2006 P1 (McNaught) | -5.5 | 35 degrees | 07 Aug 2006 | Jan – Mar 2007 |
| C/1975 V1 (West) | -3 | 25 degrees | 05 Nov 1975 | Nov 1975 – Mar 1976 |
| C/1947 X1 (Southern Comet) | -3 | 25 degrees | 07 Dec 1947 | Nov – Dec 1947 |
| C/1948 V1 (Eclipse Comet) | -1 | 30 degrees | 01 Nov 1948 | Nov – Dec 1948 |
| C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) | -0.8 | 45 degrees | 23 Jul 1995 | May 1996 – Dec 1997 |
| C/1956 R1 (Arend-Roland) | -0.5 | 15 degrees | 08 Nov 1956 | Feb – Apr 1957 |
| C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) | 0 | 80 degrees | 31 Jan 1996 | Mar – May 1996 |
A Short Period Comet very worthy of a mention…
| Comet | Peak Mag in 1986 | First Sighted | Last Perihelion |
| Comet 1P/Halley | 2.6 | 239AD* ? | Feb 1986 |
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