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

Comet 69P/Taylor passes perihelion

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Comets feed

Objects: 69P/Taylor
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Comet 69P/Taylor will make its closest approach to the Sun on 12 November, at a distance of 2.27 AU.

From Ashburn on the day of perihelion it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 23:25, when it reaches an altitude of 21° above your eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 04:14, 64° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 05:41, 57° above your south-western horizon.

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The events that comprise the 2026 apparition of 69P/Taylor are as follows:

Date Event
12 Nov 2026Comet 69P/Taylor passes perihelion

The table below lists the times when 69P/Taylor will be visible from Ashburn day-by-day through its apparition:

Date Constellation Comet visibility
22 Oct 2026Canis MinorVisible from 01:36 until 06:20
Highest at 06:20, 63° above S horizon
24 Oct 2026Canis MinorVisible from 01:30 until 06:22
Highest at 06:15, 63° above S horizon
26 Oct 2026Canis MinorVisible from 01:24 until 06:24
Highest at 06:09, 63° above S horizon
28 Oct 2026Canis MinorVisible from 01:17 until 06:26
Highest at 06:03, 63° above S horizon
30 Oct 2026GeminiVisible from 01:11 until 06:28
Highest at 05:57, 63° above S horizon
01 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 01:04 until 05:30
Highest at 04:50, 63° above S horizon
03 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 23:57 until 05:32
Highest at 04:44, 63° above S horizon
05 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 23:50 until 05:34
Highest at 04:38, 64° above S horizon
07 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 23:43 until 05:36
Highest at 04:31, 64° above S horizon
09 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 23:36 until 05:38
Highest at 04:25, 64° above S horizon
11 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 23:29 until 05:40
Highest at 04:18, 64° above S horizon
13 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 23:22 until 05:42
Highest at 04:11, 64° above S horizon
15 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 23:14 until 05:43
Highest at 04:04, 65° above S horizon
17 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 23:06 until 05:45
Highest at 03:57, 65° above S horizon
19 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 22:58 until 05:47
Highest at 03:50, 65° above S horizon
21 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 22:50 until 05:49
Highest at 03:43, 65° above S horizon
23 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 22:42 until 05:51
Highest at 03:35, 66° above S horizon
25 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 22:34 until 05:53
Highest at 03:28, 66° above S horizon
27 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 22:25 until 05:55
Highest at 03:20, 66° above S horizon
29 Nov 2026GeminiVisible from 22:16 until 05:57
Highest at 03:12, 66° above S horizon
01 Dec 2026GeminiVisible from 22:07 until 05:59
Highest at 03:04, 67° above S horizon

A more detailed table of 69P/Taylor's position on each night is available here. A diagram of the orbit of 69P/Taylor is available here.

Finder chart

The chart below shows the path of 69P/Taylor 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 69P/Taylor is currently available.

The comet's position at perihelion will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude
Comet 69P/Taylor 07h30m30s 13°12'N Gemini 11.9

The coordinates are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 12 Nov 2026

The sky on 12 November 2026
Sunrise
06:46
Sunset
16:57
Twilight ends
18:29
Twilight begins
05:14

3-day old moon
Waxing Crescent

13%

3 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:29 10:55 16:20
Venus 04:35 10:03 15:31
Moon 10:09 14:38 19:08
Mars 23:36 06:30 13:25
Jupiter 23:45 06:34 13:23
Saturn 15:09 21:15 03:21
All times shown in EST.

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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