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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/2020 F3

C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not visible to typical instruments. Current estimate mag 30.4. Historic peak was mag 0.8. Visual and most CCD amateur setups will not see it. Space telescopes or large ground telescopes are the remaining path.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

—

J2000

Declination

—

J2000

Estimated magnitude

30.4

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

972

Arc unknown

Last observation

26d ago

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2020-07-05

0.293 au

Peak window

2020-07-02 → 2020-07-09

COBS peak mag 0.8 on 2020-07-06 · perihelion 2020-07-05. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

0.8

COBS / analyzed peak 2020-07-06

Catalog ingest

9h 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.

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

0.293 au

e

0.9990

i

129.00°

Ω

61.10°

ω

37.30°

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/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

    Informal: NEOWISE

    C/2020 F3 · 2026-09-14 18:27:59 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • NEOWISE

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:59 UTC → current

Contributors

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