comets.venator.space

Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

Back to Contributors

C/1990 M1

C/1990 M1 (McNaught-Hughes)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 12885 days ago at mag 37.3. Historic peak was mag 16.7. 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

37.3

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

20

Arc unknown

Last observation

12885d ago

Sat, 08 Jun 1991 07:26:24 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

1991-02-20

2.650 au

Peak window

1991-02-17 → 1991-03-12

COBS peak mag 16.7 on 1991-03-09 · perihelion 1991-02-20. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

16.7

COBS / analyzed peak 1991-03-09

Catalog ingest

11h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 13:20:18 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

2.650 au

e

1.0000

i

132.00°

Ω

233.00°

ω

18.10°

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/1990 M1 (McNaught-Hughes)

    Informal: McNaught-Hughes

    C/1990 M1 · 2026-09-14 18:27:57 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • McNaught-Hughes

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:57 UTC → current

Contributors

  • Alan Hale

    Visual Observer · HAL · 7 reports · last 12886d ago

  • Andrew Pearce

    Visual Observer · PEA · 5 reports · last 12908d ago

  • Robert J. Modic

    Visual Observer · MOD · 5 reports · last 12913d ago

  • Charles S Morris

    Visual Observer · MOR · 3 reports · last 12885d ago

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