Home
Search Objects
Major Solar System Objects
Comets
Asteroids
Spacecrafts
Star Maps
Orbits
public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 4:54 
Transit: 12:57 
Sunset: 21:00
warning Set your observing location to get relevant data
wb_twilight   (Civil Twilight)  
Planets Visible Tonight
Planets Visible Tonight
 • 
What's Visible Now • Tonight Sky
Search  close
Comets » 

Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS)

Below the horizon.  Rise: 0:08 | Tran: 4:22 | Set: 8:30
Alt: -28.00°   Az: 87.52°   Direction: East

Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) is in the constellation of Sagittarius, at a distance of 781,966,018.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 19h 41m 27s and the Declination is -20° 05’ 31” (apparent coordinates). The latest observed magnitude of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) is 16.0 (data provided by COBS).

Finder Charts

Map showing Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) in Sagittarius on May, 27 2025. Field of view: 50x30 degrees
View interactive star map
Sky map showing Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) in Sagittarius on May, 27 2025. Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive sky chart

High precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

C/2024 J3 (ATLAS)
RA: 19h 39m 57s
Dec: -20° 09’ 08”
Deep sky finder chart for Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS). Field of view: 60x40 arcmins. View in deep sky object tracker

Also check out Where is Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS)?, a page that provides all the information needed to find Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

19h 41m 27s
-20° 05’ 31”
16h 39m 42s
12h 21m 09s

J2000

19h 39m 57s
-20° 09’ 08”

Additional Information

Sagittarius
16.0
0.5'
0.5'
2025-05-25
16.15

The observed values of Magnitude, Coma Diameter and Tail Length are derived from the most recent observation recorded at the Comet Observers Database. The value of Predicted Magnitude comes from the JPL Horizons ephemerides service and, in the case of comets, might be inaccurate given the highly dynamic and unpredictable behavior of these objects. When available, please refer to the Observed Magnitude value and consider the Predicted 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.

Rise and Set Times

Today's rise, transit and set times of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 110.1°
Max altitude: 18.4°
Azimuth: 249.9°
  • C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) is below the horizon from Greenwich, UK.
  • Given its current magnitude, C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) is visible only through long exposure photography.
  • Go to interactive sky chart

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.

Distance from Earth

The distance of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) from Earth is currently 781,966,018.0 kilometers, equivalent to 5.2271199740 Astronomical Units. Light takes 43m 28.358s to travel from Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) and arrive to us.

781,966,018.0
5.2271199740
43m 28.358s

The following chart shows the distance of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) 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.

Chart of the distance of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)

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 C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest Approach

Between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2099, the closest approach of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) to Earth happens on Sat Jul 25 2026 at a distance of 3.432381 Astronomical Units, or 513,476,906 kilometers:

Sat Jul 25 2026
513,476,906
3.432381

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

Light Curve

The following chart is the predicted light curve (visual magnitude as a function of time) of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS), 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.

Chart of the magnitude of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) as a function of time

Orbital Elements

The following table lists the orbital elements of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) at epoch 13 May 2024 00:00 UTC (JD: 2460444.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Element Symbol Value
Orbit eccentricity e 1.00770161
Orbit inclination i 75.63982122°
Perihelion distance q 3.85005938 AU
575,960,686 km
Aphelion distance Q n.a.
Semi-major axis a n.a.
Orbital period period n.a.
Date of perihelion transit Tp 2026-Nov-20 23:49:33
2,461,365.4928 JD
Argument of perihelion peri 74.078454356308°
Longitude of the ascending node node 285.95770390023°
Mean anomaly M -0.081214044221244°
Mean motion n 0.00008818°/day
2h1>Orbit Visualization
Orbit Diagram of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS)
View Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) in the 3D Solar System Simulator

15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.

Date Right AscensionR.A. DeclinationDec. MagnitudeMag Constellation
2025 May 20 19h 44m 42s -20° 38’ 32” 16.24 Sagittarius
2025 May 21 19h 44m 20s -20° 34’ 20” 16.23 Sagittarius
2025 May 22 19h 43m 57s -20° 30’ 09” 16.22 Sagittarius
2025 May 23 19h 43m 33s -20° 25’ 56” 16.21 Sagittarius
2025 May 24 19h 43m 08s -20° 21’ 44” 16.19 Sagittarius
2025 May 25 19h 42m 43s -20° 17’ 30” 16.18 Sagittarius
2025 May 26 19h 42m 17s -20° 13’ 16” 16.17 Sagittarius
2025 May 27 19h 41m 50s -20° 09’ 03” 16.16 Sagittarius
2025 May 28 19h 41m 22s -20° 04’ 48” 16.15 Sagittarius
2025 May 29 19h 40m 54s -20° 00’ 33” 16.13 Sagittarius
2025 May 30 19h 40m 24s -19° 56’ 18” 16.12 Sagittarius
2025 May 31 19h 39m 54s -19° 52’ 02” 16.11 Sagittarius
2025 Jun 01 19h 39m 24s -19° 47’ 46” 16.10 Sagittarius
2025 Jun 02 19h 38m 52s -19° 43’ 29” 16.09 Sagittarius

Additional Resources on TheSkyLive