Comet BrooksâÂÂSwift, also known as C/1883 D1 by its modern nomenclature, is a non-periodic comet that was visible telescopically to Earth in the early months of 1883. It was discovered independently by two American astronomers, William Robert Brooks and Lewis A. Swift.
The comet was discovered on the morning of 24 February 1883 in the constellation Pegasus. Both Brooks and Swift spotted the comet about 25 minutes from one another, with initial orbital calculations suggesting it already passed perihelion on 19 February.
Nikolaus von Konkoly made spectroscopic observations of the comet on 3 March, two days after it made its closest approach to Earth at a distance of . Seth C. Chandler, Jr. watched the comet occult an 8th-magnitude star on the night of 5 March, which enabled him to measure the comet's apparent magnitude at the time. By late March, the comet started to fade away rapidly, until it was last observed within the constellation Orion on 24 April 1883.