ince been identified as previous, though poorly observed, appearances of Halley's comet, periodic comet Swift-Tuttle, and periodic comet d'Arrest. Cometography brings back the lesser observed comets, with the intention of providing all necessary details that might help future astronomers establish new comet identity links. To aid in the accuracy of Cometography I have tried to avoid Pingre's books and the book of Vsekhsvyatskii. I have gone through hundreds of monastic histories written and published during medieval times, as well as dozens of texts from ancient and medieval Rome, Greece, and China. I have read the diaries of dozens of explorers and significant public figures. I have translated French, German, Latin, and Spanish (with occasional help from friends), and I have had many Chinese passages retranslated when they were conflicting with other sources. All of this work was meant to try and make Cometography as accurate as possible. What else does Cometography offer? It offers, whenever possible, the complete name of every individual who made a discovery, observation, or orbital calculation. It offers all available information on the "comets that got away"--comets which were announced but lost or observed so poorly that orbits could never be calculated. It includes details of the predictions and searches for periodic comets which were expected, but not found, and attempts to explain why they were missed by astronomers. This has been aided by the generous contributions of Brian Marsden, Donald Yeomans, and Grzegorz Sitarski who have sent me unpublished orbital computations over the years. It uses the most reliable orbits to calculate important details. For the first and last observation, it gives the distances from the Earth and sun, as well as the solar elongation. For the rest of each comet's appearance it also includes the date of the closest approach to Earth, the highest and lowest declination, and the dates of full ...
