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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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2P

2P/Encke

CometClass Ecatalogued
Northern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 16.9. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required. Historic peak was mag 9.0.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

23h 19m 25s

J2000

Declination

+12° 41′ 02″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

16.9

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 66

Observations

2087

Arc unknown

Last observation

28h ago

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 23:02:24 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2027-02-10

0.339 au

Peak window

2027-02-07 → 2027-02-13

COBS peak mag 9.0 on 2027-02-10 · perihelion 2027-02-10. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

9.0

COBS / analyzed peak 2027-02-10

Catalog ingest

1m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-11-07 03:00:09 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

0.339 au

e

0.8470

i

11.30°

Ω

334.00°

ω

187.00°

a

2.220 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

16.0 / 1.2

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

130°

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

  • 2P/Encke

    2P · 2026-09-13 22:21:22 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Encke

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-13 22:21:22 UTC → current

Contributors

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