comets.venator.space

Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

Back to Contributors

C/1954 M2

C/1954 M2 (Kresak-Peltier)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 26276 days ago at mag 38.8. Historic peak was mag 8.1. 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

38.8

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

18

Arc unknown

Last observation

26276d ago

Sun, 28 Nov 1954 22:47:59 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

1954-08-15

0.757 au

Peak window

1954-08-04 → 1954-08-18

COBS peak mag 8.1 on 1954-08-07 · perihelion 1954-08-15. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

8.1

COBS / analyzed peak 1954-08-07

Catalog ingest

14h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-11-06 14:20:21 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

0.757 au

e

1.0000

i

87.70°

Ω

73.80°

ω

255.00°

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/1954 M2 (Kresak-Peltier)

    Informal: Kresak-Peltier

    C/1954 M2 · 2026-09-14 18:27:57 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Kresak-Peltier

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:57 UTC → current

Contributors

  • Albert F. Jones

    Visual Observer · JON · 22 reports · last 26329d ago

  • Max Beyer

    Visual Observer · BEY · 5 reports · last 26276d ago

  • R. L. Waterfield

    Visual Observer · WAT · 1 reports · last 26424d ago

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