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Comet

Great September comet

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C/1882 R1-C (Great September comet)

Great September comet is a comet in the Comet orbit class. Its orbit takes it from 0.01 AU to 182.37 AU from the Sun; one orbit takes 874 years.

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
125.851 AU
True anomaly
179.5°
Distance from Earth
125.605 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 Great September comet — 125.851 AU from the Sun Great September comet
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Great September comet is 125.605 AU from Earth today (17.4 light-hours).

In the sky

Right ascension
06h 46m 53s
Declination
-12° 18′ 33″
Constellation
Canis Major
Distance from Earth
125.6 AU
Elongation from the Sun
104.69° — 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
91.188 AU
Eccentricity
0.9999
Inclination
142.01°
Orbital period
874 years
Perihelion
0.008 AU
Aphelion
182.369 AU
Longitude of ascending node
347.65°
Argument of periapsis
69.58°
Epoch · J2000
2408709.5
Orbit class · COM
Comet
Tisserand (Jupiter)
-0.029

Orbit quality

Observations used
10
Data arc
153 days
First observed
1 October 1882
Last observed
3 March 1883

Discovery & classification

Also known as 1882 R1-C

Named

Sources