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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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493P

493P/LONEOS

CometClass Ecatalogued
Northern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 18.0. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required. Historic peak was mag 16.7.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

09h 29m 05s

J2000

Declination

+33° 19′ 31″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

18.0

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 66

Observations

28

Arc unknown

Last observation

164d ago

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 21:41:35 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2026-01-14

3.820 au

Peak window

2025-12-08 → 2026-01-17

COBS peak mag 16.7 on 2025-12-11 · perihelion 2026-01-14. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

16.7

COBS / analyzed peak 2025-12-11

Catalog ingest

11m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-17 01:55:25 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

3.820 au

e

0.4690

i

24.10°

Ω

0.98°

ω

83.40°

a

7.200 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

8.5 / 4

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

43°

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    down

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

  • COBS orbits

    down

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

Name history

  • 493P/LONEOS

    493P · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • LONEOS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Contributors

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