Comet 48P/Johnson

Comet 48P/Johnson is currently in the constellation of Coma. The current Right Ascension of Comet 48P/Johnson is 12h 25m 06s and the Declination is +13° 39’ 21” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]). The current estimated magnitude of Comet 48P/Johnson is 22.05 (JPL) while the latest observed magnitude is 20.7 (COBS).

Today's rise, transit and set times of Comet 48P/Johnson from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change] (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

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?)
• 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 509,938,319 kilometers, equivalent to 3.408727 Astronomical Units. Light takes 28 minutes and 20.9711 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 1 January 2013 and 30 December 2100, the closest approach of Comet 48P/Johnson to Earth happens on Wed Aug 30 2084 at a distance of 0.948857 Astronomical Units, or 141,946,997 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 22.05.

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.

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
2023 Mar 24	12h 30m 20s	+13° 03’ 07”	22.09	Virgo
2023 Mar 25	12h 29m 40s	+13° 07’ 59”	22.08	Virgo
2023 Mar 26	12h 29m 00s	+13° 12’ 47”	22.08	Virgo
2023 Mar 27	12h 28m 21s	+13° 17’ 30”	22.07	Virgo
2023 Mar 28	12h 27m 42s	+13° 22’ 09”	22.07	Coma
2023 Mar 29	12h 27m 02s	+13° 26’ 42”	22.06	Coma
2023 Mar 30	12h 26m 21s	+13° 31’ 09”	22.06	Coma
2023 Mar 31	12h 25m 42s	+13° 35’ 30”	22.05	Coma
2023 Apr 01	12h 25m 03s	+13° 39’ 47”	22.05	Coma
2023 Apr 02	12h 24m 23s	+13° 43’ 58”	22.05	Coma
2023 Apr 03	12h 23m 43s	+13° 48’ 02”	22.04	Coma
2023 Apr 04	12h 23m 03s	+13° 52’ 00”	22.04	Coma
2023 Apr 05	12h 22m 24s	+13° 55’ 51”	22.03	Coma
2023 Apr 06	12h 21m 45s	+13° 59’ 38”	22.03	Coma