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C/2020 H4

C/2020 H4 (Leonard)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 2240 days ago at mag 31.2. Historic peak was mag 15.7. 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

Right ascension

J2000

Declination

J2000

Estimated magnitude

31.2

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

6

Arc unknown

Last observation

2240d ago

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 22:33:36 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2020-08-29

0.936 au

Peak window

2020-08-10 → 2020-09-01

COBS peak mag 15.7 on 2020-08-13 · perihelion 2020-08-29. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

15.7

COBS / analyzed peak 2020-08-13

Catalog ingest

12h 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

0.936 au

e

0.9930

i

84.30°

Ω

308.00°

ω

117.00°

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/2020 H4 (Leonard)

    Informal: Leonard

    C/2020 H4 · 2026-09-14 18:27:59 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Leonard

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

Contributors

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