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Comet

McNaught

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254P/McNaught

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
5.886 AU
True anomaly
202.27°
Distance from Earth
6.719 AU
As of
22 October 2026

Two-body Kepler propagation — accurate to ~0.1% for major planets over decades, less so for highly-perturbed bodies. Use JPL Horizons for high precision.

Orbit of Mercury Orbit of Venus Orbit of Mars Sun Earth — 0.995 AU from the Sun Earth McNaught — 5.886 AU from the Sun McNaught
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. McNaught is 6.719 AU from Earth today (55.9 light-minutes).

In the sky

Right ascension
13h 17m 47s
Declination
+18° 26′ 04″
Constellation
Coma Berenices
Distance from Earth
6.72 AU
Elongation from the Sun
31.08° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn

Favours the northern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far south.

From your location

See how high it is right now, whether it is up after civil twilight, and when it rises and sets where you are.

How do I find my coordinates?

Google Maps on a computer

  1. Right-click the spot where you'll be observing.
  2. The first line of the menu is the coordinates, e.g. 51.50722, -0.12758 — click it and they're copied.
  3. Paste them above.

Google Maps on a phone

  1. Press and hold the spot to drop a pin.
  2. The coordinates appear in the search bar (or on the pin's card) — tap to copy, then paste above.

A full Google Maps link works too, but the short maps.app.goo.gl share links don't carry coordinates — copy the numbers instead. We round to about a kilometre; that's all the sky calculation needs.

Know your what3words address? Paste it, e.g. ///filled.count.soap. This is optional — the three words are sent to what3words to convert them, and we don't store the address or the result.

Your location stays in your browser and is sent only for this calculation. Using a what3words address is optional; if you do, the three words go to what3words to be converted and we don't record them. Set a location first, then you can save an email alert for this object. See our privacy policy.

Two-body approximation, good to about a degree for the planets — enough to find the constellation and know whether it is up.

Orbital elements

Semi-major axis
4.615 AU
Eccentricity
0.3203
Inclination
32.57°
Orbital period
9.91 years
Perihelion
3.137 AU
Aphelion
6.093 AU
Longitude of ascending node
129.17°
Argument of periapsis
219.47°
Epoch · J2000
2459068.5
Orbit class · JFc
Jupiter-family comet (P < 20 y)
Earth MOID · 851.8 LD
2.1886 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
2.631

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).

Observations used
834
Data arc
45.39 years
First observed
5 October 1980
Last observed
24 February 2026
Residual RMS
0.57 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
7 March 2026

Visual & observation

Absolute magnitude (H)
12.9
Total magnitude M₁ · K₁ 4.5
12.9

Discovery & classification

Also known as 254P · 254P/2010 T1

Named

Close approaches 9 on record

When (UTC) Body Distance Lunar distances Relative speed
2074-03-13 08:18:00 Juptr 1.1342 AU 441.4 LD 6.8 km/s
2121-08-05 14:34:00 Juptr 0.9848 AU 383.3 LD 8.5 km/s
2128-06-27 07:52:00 Juptr 1.9889 AU 774.0 LD 9.7 km/s
2192-11-15 04:55:00 Juptr 1.594 AU 620.3 LD 6.8 km/s

Next ten from today. 1 lunar distance = 384,400 km. Source: JPL close-approach data.

Sources