Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is currently in the constellation of Hercules. The current Right Ascension of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is 17h 45m 28s and the Declination is +16° 46’ 44” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]). The current estimated magnitude of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is 26.04 (JPL).

Summary of key facts about Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks [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 12P/Pons-Brooks available on TheSkyLive:

Available Resources

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks?)
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks from Earth?)
• Rise and set times (see also When does Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks rise and set?)
• Brightness (see also How bright is Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks?)
• Orbital elements. Detailed information about Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks orbital parameters.
• Interactive orbit visualization. 3d visualization showing the orbit of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks with respect to the major Solar System objects.
• 15 days ephemerides. Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks for the past and next 7 days.
• Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in the sky from your location.
• Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.

Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

Also check out Where is Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks?, a page that provides all the information needed to find Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks Distance from Earth

The distance of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks from Earth is currently 1,737,071,020 kilometers, equivalent to 11.611603 Astronomical Units. Light takes 1 hours, 36 minutes and 34.2452 seconds to travel from Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks and arrive to us.

The following chart shows the distance of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks 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 12P/Pons-Brooks from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest approach of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks to Earth

Between January 2013 and December 2100, the closest approach of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks to Earth happens on Sun Aug 28 2095 at a distance of 1.525129 Astronomical Units, or 228,156,099 kilometers:

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

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks brightness

The current visual magnitude of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is 26.04.

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 12P/Pons-Brooks, 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 12P/Pons-Brooks rise and set times

Today's Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks 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 12P/Pons-Brooks 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 12P/Pons-Brooks Orbit

This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets. The position of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks 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 12P/Pons-Brooks 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Constellation
2020 Oct 22	17h 43m 54s	+17° 02’ 54”	26.05	Hercules
2020 Oct 23	17h 44m 05s	+17° 00’ 33”	26.05	Hercules
2020 Oct 24	17h 44m 18s	+16° 58’ 14”	26.05	Hercules
2020 Oct 25	17h 44m 31s	+16° 55’ 59”	26.05	Hercules
2020 Oct 26	17h 44m 44s	+16° 53’ 44”	26.04	Hercules
2020 Oct 27	17h 44m 57s	+16° 51’ 30”	26.04	Hercules
2020 Oct 28	17h 45m 11s	+16° 49’ 19”	26.04	Hercules
2020 Oct 29	17h 45m 25s	+16° 47’ 12”	26.04	Hercules
2020 Oct 30	17h 45m 39s	+16° 45’ 05”	26.03	Hercules
2020 Oct 31	17h 45m 54s	+16° 43’ 00”	26.03	Hercules
2020 Nov 01	17h 46m 09s	+16° 40’ 58”	26.03	Hercules
2020 Nov 02	17h 46m 23s	+16° 38’ 57”	26.03	Hercules
2020 Nov 03	17h 46m 38s	+16° 37’ 00”	26.02	Hercules
2020 Nov 04	17h 46m 54s	+16° 35’ 04”	26.02	Hercules