Comet 51P/Harrington
Comet 51P/Harrington Position
Comet 51P/Harrington is currently in the constellation of Virgo. The current Right Ascension is 13h 17m 08s and the Declination is -01° 42’ 19”.
Simplified sky chart showing where Comet 51P/Harrington is right now in the sky with respect to the brightest stars and constellations (see full screen Online Planetarium)
Field of view: 60x30 degrees
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Higher precision deep sky finder chart showing where Comet 51P/Harrington is right now (view fullscreen)
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
The distance of Comet 51P/Harrington from Earth is currently 705,524,611 kilometers, equivalent to 4.716141 Astronomical Units. Light takes 39 minutes and 13.3768 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 26.64.
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
Location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London
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 Feb 12 | 13h 18m 42s | -01° 59’ 08” | 26.72 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 13 | 13h 18m 32s | -01° 57’ 07” | 26.71 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 14 | 13h 18m 20s | -01° 55’ 04” | 26.70 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 15 | 13h 18m 10s | -01° 52’ 55” | 26.69 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 16 | 13h 17m 57s | -01° 50’ 44” | 26.68 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 17 | 13h 17m 44s | -01° 48’ 28” | 26.67 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 18 | 13h 17m 30s | -01° 46’ 08” | 26.66 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 19 | 13h 17m 17s | -01° 43’ 44” | 26.65 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 20 | 13h 17m 02s | -01° 41’ 16” | 26.64 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 21 | 13h 16m 45s | -01° 38’ 44” | 26.64 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 22 | 13h 16m 28s | -01° 36’ 09” | 26.63 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 23 | 13h 16m 11s | -01° 33’ 30” | 26.62 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 24 | 13h 15m 54s | -01° 30’ 47” | 26.61 | Virgo |
| 2020 Feb 25 | 13h 15m 35s | -01° 28’ 01” | 26.60 | Virgo |