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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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88P

88P/Howell

CometClass Ecatalogued
Northern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 14.8. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required. Historic peak was mag 8.9.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

03h 16m 09s

J2000

Declination

+15° 00′ 52″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

14.8

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 76

Observations

0

Arc unknown

Last observation

27h ago

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 19:20:40 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2026-03-18

1.360 au

Peak window

2026-03-15 → 2026-03-26

COBS peak mag 8.9 on 2026-03-23 · perihelion 2026-03-18. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

8.9

COBS / analyzed peak 2026-03-23

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

1.360 au

e

0.5630

i

4.38°

Ω

56.70°

ω

236.00°

a

3.110 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

3.5 / 11.8

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

123°

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

  • 88P/Howell

    88P · 2026-09-09 01:34:01 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Howell

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-09 01:34:01 UTC → current

Contributors

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