10,724 days ago
Dominic Ford, Editor
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Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will make its closest approach to the Sun on 14 October, at a distance of 1.14 AU.
From South El Monte on the day of perihelion it will be visible in the dawn sky, rising at 00:28 (PST) and reaching an altitude of 65° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:56.
The events that comprise the 1996 apparition of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko are as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 14 Oct 1996 | Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko passes perihelion |
The table below lists the times when 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will be visible from South El Monte day-by-day through its apparition:
| Date | Constellation | Comet visibility |
| 23 Sep 1996 | Gemini | Visible from 02:08 until 05:41 Highest at 05:41, 65° above SE horizon |
| 25 Sep 1996 | Gemini | Visible from 02:10 until 05:42 Highest at 05:42, 65° above SE horizon |
| 27 Sep 1996 | Gemini | Visible from 02:11 until 05:44 Highest at 05:44, 65° above SE horizon |
| 29 Sep 1996 | Gemini | Visible from 02:13 until 05:45 Highest at 05:45, 65° above E horizon |
| 01 Oct 1996 | Gemini | Visible from 02:14 until 05:47 Highest at 05:47, 65° above E horizon |
| 03 Oct 1996 | Gemini | Visible from 02:16 until 05:48 Highest at 05:48, 65° above E horizon |
| 05 Oct 1996 | Gemini | Visible from 02:18 until 05:50 Highest at 05:50, 65° above E horizon |
| 07 Oct 1996 | Gemini | Visible from 02:19 until 05:51 Highest at 05:51, 65° above E horizon |
| 09 Oct 1996 | Gemini | Visible from 02:21 until 05:53 Highest at 05:53, 65° above E horizon |
| 11 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 02:22 until 05:54 Highest at 05:54, 65° above E horizon |
| 13 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 02:23 until 05:56 Highest at 05:56, 65° above E horizon |
| 15 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 02:25 until 05:57 Highest at 05:57, 65° above E horizon |
| 17 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 02:26 until 05:59 Highest at 05:59, 65° above SE horizon |
| 19 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 02:26 until 06:00 Highest at 06:00, 66° above SE horizon |
| 21 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 02:27 until 06:02 Highest at 06:02, 66° above SE horizon |
| 23 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 02:28 until 06:03 Highest at 06:03, 66° above SE horizon |
| 25 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 02:28 until 06:05 Highest at 06:05, 66° above SE horizon |
| 27 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 01:28 until 05:06 Highest at 05:06, 66° above SE horizon |
| 29 Oct 1996 | Cancer | Visible from 01:29 until 05:08 Highest at 05:08, 66° above SE horizon |
| 31 Oct 1996 | Leo | Visible from 01:28 until 05:10 Highest at 05:10, 67° above SE horizon |
| 02 Nov 1996 | Leo | Visible from 01:28 until 05:11 Highest at 05:11, 67° above SE horizon |
A more detailed table of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is available here.
Finder chart
The chart below shows the path of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 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 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is currently available.
The comet's position at perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko | 08h16m20s | 22°00'N | Cancer | 9.4 |
The coordinates are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 23 Feb 2026
| The sky on 23 February 2026 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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52% 7 days old |
All times shown in PST.
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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 15 Dec 2025.
Image credit
© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.