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254P

254P/McNaught

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 1776 days ago at mag 22.8. Historic peak was mag 17.7. 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

22.8

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

10

Arc unknown

Last observation

1776d ago

Sun, 26 Dec 2021 20:24:00 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2030-09-02

3.150 au

Peak window

2020-08-28 → 2030-09-05

COBS peak mag 17.7 on 2020-08-31 · perihelion 2030-09-02. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

17.7

COBS / analyzed peak 2020-08-31

Catalog ingest

13h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-11-06 14:20:19 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

3.150 au

e

0.3180

i

32.50°

Ω

129.00°

ω

220.00°

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

  • 254P/McNaught

    254P · 2026-09-14 18:27:55 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • McNaught

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:55 UTC → current

Contributors

  • Giuseppe Pappa

    CCD Observer · PAP04 · 3 reports · last 1776d ago

  • Kevin Hills

    CCD Observer · HIL04 · 3 reports · last 1878d ago

  • Artyom Novichonok

    CCD Observer · NOV01 · 2 reports · last 5442d ago

  • Martin Mašek

    CCD Observer · MAS01 · 1 reports · last 1791d ago

  • Toru Yusa

    CCD Observer · YUS · 1 reports · last 5828d ago

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