comets.venator.space

Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

Back to Contributors

C/2006 P1

C/2006 P1 (McNaught)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 7012 days ago at mag 30.2. Historic peak was mag -2.1. 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

30.2

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

574

Arc unknown

Last observation

7012d ago

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 23:31:12 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2007-01-07

0.164 au

Peak window

2007-01-04 → 2007-01-10

COBS peak mag -2.1 on 2007-01-07 · perihelion 2007-01-07. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

-2.1

COBS / analyzed peak 2007-01-07

Catalog ingest

11h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 13:20:15 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

0.164 au

e

1.0000

i

78.10°

Ω

267.00°

ω

156.00°

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/2006 P1 (McNaught)

    Informal: McNaught

    C/2006 P1 · 2026-09-14 18:27:52 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • McNaught

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:52 UTC → current

Contributors

1–40 of 114

1 / 3

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