Comet Observation database (COBS) saw first light in 2010 and is maintained by Crni Vrh Observatory. It is a free and unique service for comet observers worldwide which allows submission, display and analysis of comet data in a single location.
Amateur astronomers can make valuable contributions to comet science by observing comets and submitting their observations to COBS as professional astronomers typically do not have telescope time required to acquire regular observations. We therefore encourage comet observers worldwide to submit their observations and contribute to the COBS database.
Registered observers may submit observations using a web based form which stores the observations in an SQL database and stores them in ICQ format. Observations may be queried and plotted in the website or exported for further processing, analysis and publication. The database currently contains more than 279700 comet observations of more than 1590 different comets and represents the largest available database of comet observations.
The data stored in COBS is freely available to everyone who honors our data usage policy. Please cite COBS as the reference if you use it for comet studies.
Image of periodic comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, obtained on 2024 Apr. 2 (19h32-19h53UT) with 15-cm, f/3.5 Quattro-150P telescope and Canon 700D camera. Exposure time was 12 minutes at ISO 1600. Image scale is 5.1 arc sec/pixel. Field size 2.5 x 1.6 deg. Images were taken near the village of Sv. Gregor (Sodrazica). Copyright © 2024 by H. Mikuz and A. Mohar, Crni Vrh Observatory.
Comet | Mag | T | Source | Best time | Const | Obs | Chart | Comet PK | Comet MPC | Type | MPC name |
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Location: Crni Vrh Observatory
Latitude: 45.94583; longitude: 14.07111; elevation: 726.0
Limiting mag: 15; Min altitude: 0; Min solar elong: 0; Min moon elong: 0
All times are in UTCComet finding charts provided by Dominic Ford: https://in-the-sky.org/
Type | Comet | Obs date | Meth | Mag | T | App | P | Dia | DC | Tail | Tail unit | PA | User | Pk |
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On March 25, 2024, a citizen scientist in the Czech Republic spotted a comet in an image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which has now been confirmed to be the 5,000th comet discovered using SOHO data. SOHO has achieved this milestone over 28 years in space, even though it was never designed to be a comet hunter.
The new comet to look for with the naked eye.
A new comet is visible in the predawn skies as it passes close to Earth on its journey around the Sun. Comet Nishimura is green in color with a long, white tail. It will make its closest pass by Earth on Sept. 12, 2023, and then will carry on toward the Sun.
We have known for a while that asteroid 3200 Phaethon acts like a comet. It brightens and forms a tail when it's near the Sun, and it is the source of the annual Geminid meteor shower, even though comets are responsible for most meteor showers. Scientists had blamed Phaethon's comet-like behavior on dust escaping from the asteroid as it's scorched by the Sun. However, a new study using two NASA solar observatories reveals that Phaethon's tail is not dusty at all but is actually made of sodium gas.