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Comet

Tomita-Gerber-Honda

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C/1964 L1 (Tomita-Gerber-Honda)

Tomita-Gerber-Honda is a comet in the Comet orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.5 AU to 245.48 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 1,364 years. Orbit from the JPL solution of 15 April 2021.

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
81.303 AU
True anomaly
172.64°
Distance from Earth
80.673 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.

Sun Earth — 0.994 AU from the Sun Earth Tomita-Gerber-Honda — 81.303 AU from the Sun Tomita-Gerber-Honda
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Tomita-Gerber-Honda is 80.673 AU from Earth today (11.2 light-hours).

In the sky

Right ascension
05h 23m 51s
Declination
+09° 00′ 07″
Constellation
Orion
Distance from Earth
80.66 AU
Elongation from the Sun
129.82° — well clear of the Sun

Visible from both hemispheres.

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
122.989 AU
Eccentricity
0.9959
Inclination
161.83°
Orbital period
1,364 years
Perihelion
0.5 AU
Aphelion
245.478 AU
Longitude of ascending node
309.87°
Argument of periapsis
58.42°
Epoch · J2000
2438628.5
Orbit class · COM
Comet
Earth MOID · 61.6 LD
0.1582 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
-0.79

Orbit quality

Observations used
16
Data arc
229 days
First observed
11 June 1964
Last observed
26 January 1965
Residual RMS
0.44 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
15 April 2021

Discovery & classification

Also known as 1964 L1

Named

Sources