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

Comet 78P/Gehrels passes perihelion

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Comets feed

Objects: 78P/Gehrels
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The sky at

Comet 78P/Gehrels will make its closest approach to the Sun on 24 June, at a distance of 2.01 AU.

From Fairfield on the day of perihelion it will not be observable – it will reach its highest point in the sky during daytime and will be no higher than 5° above the horizon at dawn.

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The events that comprise the 2026 apparition of 78P/Gehrels are as follows:

Date Event
24 Jun 2026Comet 78P/Gehrels passes perihelion

The table below lists the times when 78P/Gehrels will be visible from Fairfield day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
03 Jun 2026AriesNot observable
05 Jun 2026AriesNot observable
07 Jun 2026AriesNot observable
09 Jun 2026AriesNot observable
11 Jun 2026AriesNot observable
13 Jun 2026AriesNot observable
15 Jun 2026TaurusNot observable
17 Jun 2026TaurusNot observable
19 Jun 2026TaurusNot observable
21 Jun 2026TaurusNot observable
23 Jun 2026TaurusNot observable
25 Jun 2026TaurusNot observable
27 Jun 2026TaurusNot observable
29 Jun 2026TaurusNot observable
01 Jul 2026TaurusNot observable
03 Jul 2026TaurusNot observable
05 Jul 2026TaurusNot observable
07 Jul 2026TaurusNot observable
09 Jul 2026TaurusNot observable
11 Jul 2026TaurusNot observable
13 Jul 2026TaurusNot observable

A more detailed table of 78P/Gehrels's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 78P/Gehrels is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of 78P/Gehrels 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 78P/Gehrels is currently available.

The comet's position at perihelion will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet 78P/Gehrels 03h48m40s 19°01'N Taurus 12.0

The coordinates are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 24 Jun 2026

The sky on 24 June 2026
Sunrise
05:18
Sunset
20:29
Twilight ends
22:37
Twilight begins
03:09

9-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

80%

9 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:09 14:28 21:46
Venus 08:30 15:43 22:56
Moon 15:55 20:59 01:55
Mars 03:06 10:19 17:33
Jupiter 07:22 14:43 22:05
Saturn 01:21 07:35 13:49
All times shown in EDT.

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 02 Jan 2024.

Image credit

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

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Fairfield

Latitude:
Longitude:
Timezone:

41.14°N
73.26°W
EDT

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