Comet 48P/Johnson

Comet 48P/Johnson is currently in the constellation of Cancer. The current Right Ascension of Comet 48P/Johnson is 08h 59m 26s and the Declination is +19° 11’ 05” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]). The current estimated magnitude of Comet 48P/Johnson is 23.07 (JPL).

Summary of key facts about Comet 48P/Johnson [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 48P/Johnson available on TheSkyLive:

Available Resources

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is Comet 48P/Johnson?)
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is Comet 48P/Johnson from Earth?)
• Rise and set times (see also When does Comet 48P/Johnson rise and set?)
• Brightness (see also How bright is Comet 48P/Johnson?)
• Orbital elements. Detailed information about Comet 48P/Johnson orbital parameters.
• Interactive orbit visualization. 3d visualization showing the orbit of Comet 48P/Johnson with respect to the major Solar System objects.
• 15 days ephemerides. Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Comet 48P/Johnson for the past and next 7 days.
• Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Comet 48P/Johnson in the sky from your location.
• Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Comet 48P/Johnson with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.

Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Comet 48P/Johnson is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

Also check out Where is Comet 48P/Johnson?, a page that provides all the information needed to find Comet 48P/Johnson in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Comet 48P/Johnson Distance from Earth

The distance of Comet 48P/Johnson from Earth is currently 684,417,084 kilometers, equivalent to 4.575046 Astronomical Units. Light takes 38 minutes and 2.9697 seconds to travel from Comet 48P/Johnson and arrive to us.

The following chart shows the distance of Comet 48P/Johnson 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 48P/Johnson from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest approach of Comet 48P/Johnson to Earth

Between January 2013 and December 2100, the closest approach of Comet 48P/Johnson to Earth happens on Wed Aug 30 2084 at a distance of 0.948873 Astronomical Units, or 141,949,413 kilometers:

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

Comet 48P/Johnson brightness

The current visual magnitude of Comet 48P/Johnson is 23.07.

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 48P/Johnson, 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 48P/Johnson rise and set times

Today's Comet 48P/Johnson 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 48P/Johnson 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 48P/Johnson Orbit

This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of Comet 48P/Johnson with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets. The position of Comet 48P/Johnson 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 48P/Johnson 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Comet 48P/Johnson computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate Comet 48P/Johnson in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Constellation
2020 Oct 24	08h 56m 30s	+19° 12’ 44”	23.09	Cancer
2020 Oct 25	08h 56m 56s	+19° 12’ 20”	23.09	Cancer
2020 Oct 26	08h 57m 21s	+19° 11’ 59”	23.09	Cancer
2020 Oct 27	08h 57m 47s	+19° 11’ 43”	23.08	Cancer
2020 Oct 28	08h 58m 12s	+19° 11’ 29”	23.08	Cancer
2020 Oct 29	08h 58m 35s	+19° 11’ 17”	23.08	Cancer
2020 Oct 30	08h 58m 58s	+19° 11’ 11”	23.07	Cancer
2020 Oct 31	08h 59m 20s	+19° 11’ 07”	23.07	Cancer
2020 Nov 01	08h 59m 40s	+19° 11’ 07”	23.06	Cancer
2020 Nov 02	09h 00m 02s	+19° 11’ 11”	23.06	Cancer
2020 Nov 03	09h 00m 21s	+19° 11’ 17”	23.06	Cancer
2020 Nov 04	09h 00m 41s	+19° 11’ 30”	23.05	Cancer
2020 Nov 05	09h 00m 59s	+19° 11’ 44”	23.05	Cancer
2020 Nov 06	09h 01m 15s	+19° 12’ 02”	23.05	Cancer