I remember reading about Halley’s comet, (aka Comet Halley or 1P/Halley) when I was a kid. It troubled me that its short-period orbit was about 76 years, would I get to see it, I wondered? Well, it finally appeared in the sky, visible to the naked eye when I was almost 20, so there always was a reasonable chance. It was closest to the Sun in its orbit, perihelion, on this day (9th February) in 1986 and thereafter began to wing its way back to the farthest point, aphelion, which it will reach on 9th December 2023 and then begin its return.
It will next appear in Earthly skies in the middle of 2061. I am hoping to see it again but I will be in my mid-90s by then…so, who knows?
Something else that troubled me as a kid…Bill Haley and the Comets…it meant I thought it was Haley’s Comet for a long time…