© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.

Comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup passes perihelion

Dominic Ford, Editor
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Comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup will make its closest approach to the Sun on 31 December, at a distance of 1.08 AU.

From South El Monte on the day of perihelion it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 22:19, when it reaches an altitude of 21° above your eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 03:14, 71° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 05:54, 49° above your western horizon.

Begin typing the name of a town near to you, and then select the town from the list of options which appear below.

The events that comprise the 1969–1970 apparition of 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup are as follows:

Date Event

The table below lists the times when 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup will be visible from South El Monte day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
16 Apr 1987HydraVisible from 20:27 until 23:09
Highest at 20:27, 44° above S horizon
18 Apr 1987HydraVisible from 20:29 until 23:14
Highest at 20:29, 45° above S horizon
20 Apr 1987HydraVisible from 20:31 until 23:20
Highest at 20:31, 47° above SW horizon
22 Apr 1987HydraVisible from 20:33 until 23:27
Highest at 20:33, 49° above SW horizon
24 Apr 1987HydraVisible from 20:35 until 23:34
Highest at 20:35, 50° above SW horizon
26 Apr 1987HydraVisible from 20:37 until 23:41
Highest at 20:37, 52° above SW horizon
28 Apr 1987HydraVisible from 20:39 until 23:50
Highest at 20:39, 55° above SW horizon
30 Apr 1987HydraVisible from 20:41 until 23:59
Highest at 20:41, 57° above SW horizon
02 May 1987LeoVisible from 20:43 until 00:08
Highest at 20:43, 59° above SW horizon
04 May 1987LeoVisible from 20:45 until 00:19
Highest at 20:45, 62° above SW horizon
06 May 1987LeoVisible from 20:47 until 00:30
Highest at 20:47, 64° above SW horizon
08 May 1987LeoVisible from 20:49 until 00:41
Highest at 20:49, 67° above SW horizon
10 May 1987LeoVisible from 20:51 until 00:53
Highest at 20:51, 69° above SW horizon
12 May 1987LeoVisible from 20:52 until 01:05
Highest at 20:52, 72° above SW horizon
14 May 1987Leo MinorVisible from 20:54 until 01:18
Highest at 20:54, 75° above SW horizon
16 May 1987Leo MinorVisible from 20:56 until 01:31
Highest at 20:56, 77° above SW horizon
18 May 1987LeoVisible from 20:58 until 01:44
Highest at 20:58, 80° above SW horizon
20 May 1987Ursa MajorVisible from 21:00 until 01:56
Highest at 21:00, 82° above SW horizon
22 May 1987Ursa MajorVisible from 21:02 until 02:08
Highest at 21:02, 84° above W horizon
24 May 1987Ursa MajorVisible from 21:04 until 02:20
Highest at 21:04, 86° above W horizon
26 May 1987Canes VenaticiVisible from 21:05 until 02:31
Highest at 21:05, 87° above W horizon

A more detailed table of 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup over the course of its apparition, as calculated from the orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC). It is available for download, either on dark background, in PNG, PDF or SVG formats, or on a light background, in PNG, PDF or SVG formats. It was produced using StarCharter.

Comet brightnesses

Comets are intrinsically highly unpredictable objects, since their brightness depends on the scattering of sunlight from dust particles in the comet's coma and tail. This dust is continually streaming away from the comet's nucleus, and its density at any particular time is governed by the rate of sublimation of the ice in the comet's nucleus, as it is heated by the Sun's rays. It also depends on the amount of dust that is mixed in with that ice. This is very difficult to predict in advance, and can be highly variable even between successive apparitions of the same comet.

In consequence, while the future positions of comets are usually known with a high degree of confidence, their future brightnesses are not. For most comets, we do not publish any magnitude estimates at all. For the few comets where we do make estimates, we generally prefer the BAA's magnitude parameters to those published by the Minor Planet Center, since they are typically updated more often.

No estimate for the brightness of comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup is currently available.

The comet's position at perihelion will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup 10h00m50s 15°32'N Leo 9.3

The coordinates are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 9 Oct 2025

The sky on 9 October 2025
Sunrise
06:50
Sunset
18:25
Twilight ends
19:48
Twilight begins
05:26

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

82%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:19 13:43 19:07
Venus 05:07 11:20 17:32
Moon 19:25 02:33 09:51
Mars 08:53 14:13 19:33
Jupiter 00:13 07:18 14:22
Saturn 17:34 23:27 05:20
All times shown in PDT.

Source

This event was automatically generated on the basis of orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) , and is updated whenever new elements become available. It was last updated on 29 Sep 2025.

Image credit

© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.

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South El Monte

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34.05°N
118.05°W
PDT

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