Comet C/2016 VZ18 (PANSTARRS) will make its closest approach to the Sun, at a distance of 0.91 AU.
From Ashburn, it will become visible at around 19:11 (EDT) as the dusk sky fades, 50° above your western horizon. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting 6 hours and 23 minutes after the Sun at 00:30.
For more information about its path across the sky, see In-The-Sky.org's ephemeris page for comet C/2016 VZ18 (PANSTARRS).
This event was automatically generated on the basis of orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), and is updated daily (last update, 17 Oct 2018).
Note that the future positions of comets are typically known with a high degree of confidence, but their brightnesses are often much more unpredictable, since it is impossible to predict with certainty how they will respond as they move closer to the Sun. Magnitude estimates should be assumed to be highly provisional more than a few weeks in advance.
Printable finder charts
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The exact position of comet C/2016 VZ18 (PANSTARRS) will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude |
| Comet C/2016 VZ18 (PANSTARRS) | 02h35m20s | +37°46' | Andromeda | 11.1 |
The coordinates are given in J2000.0.
| The sky on 06 March 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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68% 8 days old |
All times shown in EST.
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Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE405 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Image credit
© Andy Roberts 1997. Pictured comet is C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.