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Comet

Siding Spring

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389P/Siding Spring

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
9.576 AU
True anomaly
180.93°
Distance from Earth
10.088 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 Siding Spring — 9.576 AU from the Sun Siding Spring
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Siding Spring is 10.088 AU from Earth today (1.4 light-hours).

In the sky

Right ascension
10h 54m 47s
Declination
+26° 13′ 23″
Constellation
Leo Minor
Distance from Earth
10.08 AU
Elongation from the Sun
57.36° — 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
5.62 AU
Eccentricity
0.7047
Inclination
160.07°
Orbital period
13.32 years
Perihelion
1.66 AU
Aphelion
9.579 AU
Longitude of ascending node
218.81°
Argument of periapsis
249.49°
Epoch · J2000
2456604.5
Orbit class · JFC
Jupiter-family comet (2 < T_J < 3)
Earth MOID · 297.7 LD
0.765 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
-0.46

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).

Observations used
103
Data arc
13.2 years
First observed
1 September 2006
Last observed
15 November 2019
Residual RMS
0.5 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
31 July 2022

Visual & observation

Absolute magnitude (H)
14.3
Total magnitude M₁ · K₁ 19.5
14.3

Discovery & classification

Also known as 389P · 389P/2006 R1 · 389P/2019 S1

Named

Close approaches 12 on record

When (UTC) Body Distance Lunar distances Relative speed
2072-04-19 03:16:00 Juptr 1.7188 AU 668.9 LD 29.8 km/s
2075-11-26 13:50:00 Juptr 1.9529 AU 760.0 LD 20.2 km/s
2084-12-10 01:09:00 Juptr 1.4719 AU 572.8 LD 25.4 km/s
2088-04-27 08:37:00 Juptr 0.7627 AU 296.8 LD 22.6 km/s
2100-11-12 23:36:00 Juptr 1.0099 AU 393.0 LD 25.9 km/s
2191-05-07 21:49:00 Juptr 1.4456 AU 562.6 LD 27.8 km/s
2194-10-21 07:50:00 Juptr 1.454 AU 565.9 LD 21.1 km/s

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

Sources