Welcome to the home page of the SOHO/LASCO and STEREO/SECCHI comet program, based in the Solar Physics Department of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D.C.

On this website you can view and submit reports of suspected comets visible in LASCO and SECCHI images. You will find information on past comets found by both instruments and from other spaceborne and ground-based instruments. There is also a wealth of information here designed to help newcomers discover their first SOHO or STEREO comet! In addition, pictures and educational resources that can be used both in the classroom and at home are shown throughout the site.

SOHO is the most successful comet discoverer in history, having found over one thousand comets in its ten years of operation! What's even more impressive is that the majority of these comets have been found by amateur astronomers and enthusiasts from all over the world, scouring the images for a likely comet candidate. Absolutely anyone can do this -- all you need is an internet connection and plenty of free time! (See the FAQs for more information)

STEREO is a pair of near-identical satellites designed to monitor the Sun from very different viewpoints in the solar system. The imaging instruments on STEREO (known as the SECCHI suite) are of similar design to the LASCO instruments on SOHO, meaning that we see many comets in the SECCHI data. Due to a longer data processing time for SECCHI, most near-Sun comets are discovered first in LASCO images, but an increasing number of objects are now being found in SECCHI data.

Follow the "Introduction" links on the left for more information about both SOHO and STEREO.

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(last count update: Jun26,2008)