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Comet Near-Earth

Candy

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C/1960 Y1 (Candy)

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
17.107 AU
True anomaly
161.43°
Distance from Earth
17.86 AU
As of
11 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 — 0.998 AU from the Sun Earth Candy — 17.107 AU from the Sun Candy
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Candy is 17.86 AU from Earth today (2.5 light-hours).

In the sky

Right ascension
14h 45m 46s
Declination
-40° 43′ 21″
Constellation
Centaurus
Distance from Earth
17.87 AU
Elongation from the Sun
39.51° — 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
15.025 AU
Eccentricity
0.9303
Inclination
151.17°
Orbital period
58.24 years
Perihelion
1.047 AU
Aphelion
29.004 AU
Longitude of ascending node
177.29°
Argument of periapsis
138.76°
Epoch · J2000
2437308.5
Orbit class · HTC
Halley-type comet
Earth MOID · 59.2 LD
0.1522 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
-0.746

Orbit quality

Orbit very uncertain — the object may be effectively lost (uncertainty code 9).

Observations used
8
Data arc
8 days
First observed
5 January 1961
Last observed
13 January 1961
Residual RMS
0.14 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
15 April 2021

Discovery & classification

Also known as 1960 Y1

Near-Earth Object Named

Sources