comets.venator.space

Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

Back to Overview

220P

220P/McNaught

CometClass Ecatalogued
Both hemispheres

Visible to modest telescopes (mag 11.5). Last report 1 days ago.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

03h 31m 46s

J2000

Declination

+07° 37′ 29″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

11.5

Small telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 88

Observations

533

80.00 d arc

Last observation

20h ago

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 01:00:00 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2026-06-14

1.560 au

Peak window

2026-06-11 → 2026-06-17

COBS peak mag 9.3 on 2026-06-14 · perihelion 2026-06-14. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

9.3

COBS / analyzed peak 2026-06-14

Catalog ingest

2m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 21:25:45 UTC

Light curve

Brightness over time (V mag)

Gold = reported observations. Steel dashed family = ensemble (nominal / outburst / fade / disruption).

Tail length

Converted to degrees from COBS (d / arcmin / arcsec). Empty until analysis has pulled the archive.

Ensemble is a first-pass H0/n photometric model plus observed samples — not a trained ML forecast yet. The background analyzer walks the catalog one object at a time so COBS is not flooded. Disruption track rises after perihelion to stand in for solar-wind stripping.

Orbital elements

q

1.560 au

e

0.5000

i

8.12°

Ω

150.00°

ω

181.00°

a

3.120 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

-1.3 / 20

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

121°

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    ok

    Comet Observation Database magnitudes and perihelion data for the full COBS list (active and inactive).

  • COBS orbits

    ok

    Osculating elements and photometric parameters (H0, n) for active comets.

Name history

  • 220P/McNaught

    220P · 2026-09-08 02:09:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • McNaught

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-08 17:27:23 UTC → current

Contributors

1–40 of 89

1 / 3

Pips are observation weight on this object (log of report count). Hover for catalog-wide weight.