comets.venator.space

Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

Back to Catalog

C/2026 A2

C/2026 A2 (Bok)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Southern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 14.3. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required. Historic peak was mag 12.2.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

12h 47m 25s

J2000

Declination

−30° 59′ 09″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

14.3

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 76

Observations

42

80.00 d arc

Last observation

25h ago

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:52:47 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2026-12-22

1.940 au

Peak window

2026-11-22 → 2026-12-25

COBS peak mag 12.2 on 2026-11-25 · perihelion 2026-12-22. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

12.2

COBS / analyzed peak 2026-11-25

Catalog ingest

14m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 22:00:04 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

1.940 au

e

0.9980

i

82.30°

Ω

207.00°

ω

156.00°

a

832.000 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

4.3 / 9.4

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

37°

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    ok

    Comet Observation Database magnitudes and perihelion data for the full COBS list (active and inactive).

  • COBS orbits

    ok

    Osculating elements and photometric parameters (H0, n) for active comets.

Name history

  • C/2026 A2 (Bok)

    Informal: Bok

    C/2026 A2 · 2026-09-08 02:09:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Bok

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-08 17:27:23 UTC → current

Contributors

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