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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/1988 L1

C/1988 L1 (Shoemaker-Holt-Rodriquez)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 13303 days ago at mag 35.8. Historic peak was mag 14.6. 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

35.8

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

80

Arc unknown

Last observation

13303d ago

Mon, 16 Apr 1990 03:21:36 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

1989-06-17

2.470 au

Peak window

1989-06-14 → 1989-06-20

COBS peak mag 14.6 on 1989-06-17 · perihelion 1989-06-17. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

14.6

COBS / analyzed peak 1989-06-17

Catalog ingest

11h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 13:20:17 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.

No tail measures stored yet for this object.

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

2.470 au

e

1.0000

i

97.10°

Ω

115.00°

ω

232.00°

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

  • C/1988 L1 (Shoemaker-Holt-Rodriquez)

    Informal: Shoemaker-Holt-Rodriquez

    C/1988 L1 · 2026-09-14 18:27:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

Contributors

  • Alan Hale

    Visual Observer · HAL · 16 reports · last 13303d ago

  • Andrew Pearce

    Visual Observer · PEA · 14 reports · last 13403d ago

  • Albert F. Jones

    Visual Observer · JON · 12 reports · last 13584d ago

  • Andrew Pearce

    CCD Observer · PEA · 11 reports · last 13440d ago

  • David Seargent

    Visual Observer · SEA · 6 reports · last 13615d ago

  • Andrea Boattini

    Visual Observer · BOA · 5 reports · last 13908d ago

  • Paul Camilleri

    Visual Observer · CAM03 · 5 reports · last 13566d ago

  • Richard A. Keen

    Visual Observer · KEE · 3 reports · last 13857d ago

  • Sandro Baroni

    Visual Observer · BAR · 3 reports · last 13909d ago

  • Charles S Morris

    Visual Observer · MOR · 2 reports · last 13830d ago

  • John E. Bortle

    Visual Observer · BOR · 2 reports · last 13882d ago

  • Reinder J. Bouma

    Visual Observer · BOU · 2 reports · last 13857d ago

  • Stefan Korth

    Visual Observer · KOR · 2 reports · last 13887d ago

  • Akimasa Nakamura

    Visual Observer · NAK01 · 1 reports · last 13887d ago

  • David Levy

    Visual Observer · LEV · 1 reports · last 13946d ago

  • Peter Bus

    Visual Observer · BUS01 · 1 reports · last 13934d ago

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