---
title: "When was Halley's Comet last visible?"
description: "Its 1986 perihelion, the worst viewing in two thousand years, 9 February 1986. What happened, why it has not happened since, and whether it plausibly could again."
url: https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/halleys-comet/
site: "At One Place"
---

# When was Halley's Comet last visible?

**When was Halley's Comet last visible?: 9 February 1986**

Its 1986 perihelion, the worst viewing in two thousand years

The 1986 return was the least favourable in around two millennia — the comet and the Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun at the point of maximum brightness, so it was faint and low. Its orbital period is about 75 years, so the next perihelion is expected in 2061, and the geometry then is much better. Anyone who saw it in 1986 and sees it again will be one of a very small number of people to have seen it twice.

- **What:** Its 1986 perihelion, the worst viewing in two thousand years
- **When:** 9 February 1986
- **Category:** Space
- **Could this change?:** Not in any foreseeable way. The event is closed.

## Space

| Question | When |
| --- | --- |
| When did the Space Shuttle last fly? | 21 July 2011 |
| When did a human last walk on the Moon? | 14 December 1972 |

> This page gives a date and never a "years ago". These pages are built as static files, so a computed interval would freeze at build time and quietly become wrong — which on a reference site is worse than making the reader do the subtraction.

## Common questions

### When was Halley's Comet last visible?

9 February 1986 — Its 1986 perihelion, the worst viewing in two thousand years.

### What happened?

The 1986 return was the least favourable in around two millennia — the comet and the Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun at the point of maximum brightness, so it was faint and low. Its orbital period is about 75 years, so the next perihelion is expected in 2061, and the geometry then is much better. Anyone who saw it in 1986 and sees it again will be one of a very small number of people to have seen it twice.

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## Sources

- NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration (https://www.nasa.gov/) [Public domain (US Government)]