comets.venator.space

Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

Back to Contributors

C/1989 Y2

C/1989 Y2 (McKenzie-Russell)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 13385 days ago at mag 35.7. Historic peak was mag 12.2. 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

35.7

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

17

Arc unknown

Last observation

13385d ago

Wed, 24 Jan 1990 07:12:00 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

1989-11-07

—

Peak window

1989-11-04 → 1989-12-15

COBS peak mag 12.2 on 1989-12-12 · perihelion 1989-11-07. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

12.2

COBS / analyzed peak 1989-12-12

Catalog ingest

12h 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

—

e

—

i

—

Ω

—

ω

—

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/1989 Y2 (McKenzie-Russell)

    Informal: McKenzie-Russell

    C/1989 Y2 · 2026-09-14 18:27:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • McKenzie-Russell

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:56 UTC → current

Contributors

  • Andrew Pearce

    Visual Observer · PEA · 5 reports · last 13403d ago

  • Alan Hale

    Visual Observer · HAL · 4 reports · last 13394d ago

  • David Seargent

    Visual Observer · SEA · 2 reports · last 13414d ago

  • Paul Camilleri

    Visual Observer · CAM03 · 2 reports · last 13409d ago

  • Akira Tominaga

    Visual Observer · TOM · 1 reports · last 13412d ago

  • Andrea Boattini

    Visual Observer · BOA · 1 reports · last 13412d ago

  • Antonella Bartolini

    Visual Observer · BAR04 · 1 reports · last 13412d ago

  • David Levy

    Visual Observer · LEV · 1 reports · last 13385d ago

  • Juro Kobayashi

    Visual Observer · KOB01 · 1 reports · last 13388d ago

  • Stephane Garro

    Visual Observer · GAR02 · 1 reports · last 13407d ago

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