Comet 51P/Harrington

Comet 51P/Harrington is currently in the constellation of Virgo. The current Right Ascension of Comet 51P/Harrington is 12h 49m 49s and the Declination is -00° 37’ 53” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]). The current estimated magnitude of Comet 51P/Harrington is 26.00 (JPL).

Summary of key facts about Comet 51P/Harrington [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 51P/Harrington available on TheSkyLive:

Available Resources

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is Comet 51P/Harrington?)
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is Comet 51P/Harrington from Earth?)
• Rise and set times (see also When does Comet 51P/Harrington rise and set?)
• Brightness (see also How bright is Comet 51P/Harrington?)
• 15 days ephemerides. Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Comet 51P/Harrington for the past and next 7 days.
• Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Comet 51P/Harrington in the sky from your location.
• Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Comet 51P/Harrington with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.

Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Comet 51P/Harrington is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

Also check out Where is Comet 51P/Harrington?, a page that provides all the information needed to find Comet 51P/Harrington in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Comet 51P/Harrington Distance from Earth

The distance of Comet 51P/Harrington from Earth is currently 837,578,058 kilometers, equivalent to 5.598864 Astronomical Units. Light takes 46 minutes and 33.8597 seconds to travel from Comet 51P/Harrington and arrive to us.

The following chart shows the distance of Comet 51P/Harrington 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 51P/Harrington from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest approach of Comet 51P/Harrington to Earth

Between January 2013 and December 2100 the closest approach of Comet 51P/Harrington to Earth happens on Mon Sep 5 2022 at a distance of 0.71996295 Astronomical Units, or 107,704,924 kilometers:

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

Comet 51P/Harrington brightness

The current visual magnitude of Comet 51P/Harrington is 26.00.

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 51P/Harrington, 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 51P/Harrington rise and set times

Today's Comet 51P/Harrington 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 51P/Harrington 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.

Comet 51P/Harrington 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Comet 51P/Harrington computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate Comet 51P/Harrington in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Constellation
2020 Aug 05	12h 45m 33s	-00° 04’ 15”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 06	12h 46m 05s	-00° 08’ 27”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 07	12h 46m 36s	-00° 12’ 42”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 08	12h 47m 08s	-00° 16’ 58”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 09	12h 47m 41s	-00° 21’ 15”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 10	12h 48m 15s	-00° 25’ 36”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 11	12h 48m 48s	-00° 29’ 58”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 12	12h 49m 23s	-00° 34’ 23”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 13	12h 49m 56s	-00° 38’ 48”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 14	12h 50m 31s	-00° 43’ 15”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 15	12h 51m 06s	-00° 47’ 44”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 16	12h 51m 42s	-00° 52’ 17”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 17	12h 52m 18s	-00° 56’ 49”	26.00	Virgo
2020 Aug 18	12h 52m 54s	-01° 01’ 23”	26.00	Virgo