Comet 123P/West-Hartley

Comet 123P/West-Hartley is currently in the constellation of Scorpius. The current Right Ascension of Comet 123P/West-Hartley is 17h 51m 58s and the Declination is -34° 27’ 27” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]). The current estimated magnitude of Comet 123P/West-Hartley is 23.13 (JPL).

Summary of key facts about Comet 123P/West-Hartley [tip: you can also create a Quick Access page for this data if you access it frequently and would like to have a simpler view]:

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Additional information about Comet 123P/West-Hartley available on TheSkyLive:

Available Resources

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is Comet 123P/West-Hartley?)
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is Comet 123P/West-Hartley from Earth?)
• Rise and set times (see also When does Comet 123P/West-Hartley rise and set?)
• Brightness (see also How bright is Comet 123P/West-Hartley?)
• Orbital elements. Detailed information about Comet 123P/West-Hartley orbital parameters.
• Interactive orbit visualization. 3d visualization showing the orbit of Comet 123P/West-Hartley with respect to the major Solar System objects.
• 15 days ephemerides. Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Comet 123P/West-Hartley for the past and next 7 days.
• Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Comet 123P/West-Hartley in the sky from your location.
• Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Comet 123P/West-Hartley with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.

Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Comet 123P/West-Hartley is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

Also check out Where is Comet 123P/West-Hartley?, a page that provides all the information needed to find Comet 123P/West-Hartley in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Comet 123P/West-Hartley Distance from Earth

The distance of Comet 123P/West-Hartley from Earth is currently 726,057,183 kilometers, equivalent to 4.853392 Astronomical Units. Light takes 40 minutes and 21.8661 seconds to travel from Comet 123P/West-Hartley and arrive to us.

The following chart shows the distance of Comet 123P/West-Hartley from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.

The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth. The value of the distance of 123P/West-Hartley from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest approach of Comet 123P/West-Hartley to Earth

Between January 2013 and December 2100, the closest approach of Comet 123P/West-Hartley to Earth happens on Thu Feb 28 2019 at a distance of 1.199580 Astronomical Units, or 179,454,681 kilometers:

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Comet 123P/West-Hartley brightness

The current visual magnitude of Comet 123P/West-Hartley is 23.13.

The observed magnitude and coma diameter values are derived from the Comet Observers Database by averaging the values reported in recent observations (more recent than 4 days), when available. The Estimated Magnitude comes from the JPL Horizons ephemerides service and might be inaccurate given the highly dynamic and unpredictable behavior of comets. When available, please refer to the Observed Magnitude value and consider the Estimated Magnitude as a directional indication. We acknowledge with thanks the comet observations from the COBS Comet Observation Database contributed by observers worldwide and used in this table to report recent comet observations.

The following chart is the predicted light curve (visual magnitude as a function of time) of Comet 123P/West-Hartley, according to the most recent ephemerides data. Magnitude data is sampled with a 2 days interval and there might be inaccuracies for objects changing brightness very rapidly during the course of a few days. For comets there could be large discrepancies between the observed and predicted brightness because of their highly dynamic behaviour.

Comet 123P/West-Hartley rise and set times

Today's Comet 123P/West-Hartley rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change] are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

The rise and set times are defined as the time at which the upper limb of Comet 123P/West-Hartley touches the horizon, considering the effect of the atmospheric refraction. As the atmospheric conditions cannot be modeled precisely the times reported here should be considered correct with an approximation of few minutes.

Visualization of Comet 123P/West-Hartley Orbit

This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of Comet 123P/West-Hartley with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets. The position of Comet 123P/West-Hartley and the planets along their orbits in this diagram accurately represents the current configuration of the objects in the Solar System. This is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. Please provide us feedback!

Comet 123P/West-Hartley 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Comet 123P/West-Hartley computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate Comet 123P/West-Hartley in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Constellation
2020 Oct 20	17h 44m 22s	-34° 32’ 36”	23.03	Scorpius
2020 Oct 21	17h 45m 20s	-34° 31’ 55”	23.04	Scorpius
2020 Oct 22	17h 46m 18s	-34° 31’ 14”	23.06	Scorpius
2020 Oct 23	17h 47m 17s	-34° 30’ 34”	23.07	Scorpius
2020 Oct 24	17h 48m 16s	-34° 29’ 54”	23.08	Scorpius
2020 Oct 25	17h 49m 15s	-34° 29’ 13”	23.10	Scorpius
2020 Oct 26	17h 50m 16s	-34° 28’ 33”	23.11	Scorpius
2020 Oct 27	17h 51m 16s	-34° 27’ 52”	23.12	Scorpius
2020 Oct 28	17h 52m 18s	-34° 27’ 12”	23.14	Scorpius
2020 Oct 29	17h 53m 18s	-34° 26’ 33”	23.15	Scorpius
2020 Oct 30	17h 54m 20s	-34° 25’ 51”	23.16	Scorpius
2020 Oct 31	17h 55m 23s	-34° 25’ 10”	23.17	Scorpius
2020 Nov 01	17h 56m 25s	-34° 24’ 29”	23.19	Scorpius
2020 Nov 02	17h 57m 28s	-34° 23’ 48”	23.20	Scorpius