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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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73P-C

73P-C/Schwassmann-Wachmann

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 3505 days ago at mag 18.8. Historic peak was mag 8.9. Typical backyard telescopes will not show it. HST, JWST, or an 8–10 m class telescope might recover it with a good ephemeris.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

—

J2000

Declination

—

J2000

Estimated magnitude

18.8

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

813

Arc unknown

Last observation

3505d ago

Sat, 11 Feb 2017 08:23:59 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2022-08-25

0.973 au

Peak window

2022-08-22 → 2022-09-06

COBS peak mag 8.9 on 2022-09-03 · perihelion 2022-08-25. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

8.9

COBS / analyzed peak 2022-09-03

Catalog ingest

13m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 22:00:03 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

0.973 au

e

0.6850

i

11.20°

Ω

199.00°

ω

69.60°

a

—

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

—

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

—

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    ok

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

Name history

  • 73P-C/Schwassmann-Wachmann

    73P-C · 2026-09-13 22:21:22 UTC → current

Discoverers

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