Comets in Person.- 1 A Comet Passes.- Comets in General.- 2 Anatomy of a Ghost.- 3 Dirty Snowballs and the Nurseries of Leviathans.- 4 The Spectacular Deaths of Comets.- 5 Swords of Damocles.- 6 Observing and Discovering Comets.- Halley and the Short-Period Comets.- 7 Halley and Its Periodic Kin.- 8 Through the Ages with Halley's Comet.- Comets Wild.- 9 What Makes a Comet Great?.- 10 The Comets Before 1700.- 11 The Comets from 1700 to 1995.- The Latest Greats.- 12 The Grand Approach of Comet Hale-Bopp.- 13 Hyakutake Lightning.- 14 A Narrative Calendar for Observing Hale-Bopp.- 15 Comet of the Century.- Appendix A: Periodic Comet Numbers.- Appendix B: Great Comets in History.- Appendix C: Closest Comets in History.- Appendix D: Celestial Coordinates.- Appendix E: Orbital Elements.- Appendix F: Comet Brightness Formula and Estimating Brightness.- Appendix G: How to Report a Comet Discovery.- Appendix H: Ephemeris for Comet Hale-Bopp.- Sources of Information.- Credits.- General Index.- Comet Index.