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Comet

van Houten-Lemmon

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271P/van Houten-Lemmon

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
8.316 AU
True anomaly
222.22°
Distance from Earth
8.914 AU
As of
24 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 — 0.994 AU from the Sun Earth van Houten-Lemmon — 8.316 AU from the Sun van Houten-Lemmon
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. van Houten-Lemmon is 8.914 AU from Earth today (1.2 light-hours).

In the sky

Right ascension
17h 21m 13s
Declination
-29° 23′ 26″
Constellation
Ophiuchus
Distance from Earth
8.91 AU
Elongation from the Sun
50.38° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn

Favours the southern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far north.

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
6.974 AU
Eccentricity
0.3907
Inclination
6.86°
Orbital period
18.42 years
Perihelion
4.25 AU
Aphelion
9.699 AU
Longitude of ascending node
9.59°
Argument of periapsis
35.09°
Epoch · J2000
2456196.5
Orbit class · JFc
Jupiter-family comet (P < 20 y)
Earth MOID · 1,269.4 LD
3.2617 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
2.862

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 1).

Observations used
96
Data arc
54.32 years
First observed
24 September 1960
Last observed
20 January 2015
Residual RMS
0.66 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
15 April 2021

Visual & observation

Absolute magnitude (H)
7.2
Total magnitude M₁ · K₁ 15.8
7.2

Discovery & classification

Also known as 271P · 1961 X · 271P/1960 S1 · 271P/2012 TB36

Named

Close approaches 5 on record

When (UTC) Body Distance Lunar distances Relative speed
2104-11-15 18:50:00 Juptr 0.6244 AU 243.0 LD 6.2 km/s
2170-03-15 19:00:00 Juptr 1.9308 AU 751.4 LD 9.1 km/s
2190-09-07 22:09:00 Satrn 1.865 AU 725.8 LD 1.7 km/s

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

Sources