Welcome to COBS!
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 web site or exported for further processing, analysis and publication. The database currently contains more than 267500 comet observations of more than 1530 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.
Latest image
False color unfiltered image of comet C/2023 E1 (ATLAS), obtained on 2023 May 27 (23h48-24h00UT) with 60-cm, f/3.3 Deltagraph telescope. Exposure time was 10 minutes (10x60 seconds). Image scale is 1.6 arc sec/pixel. Copyright © 2023 by H. Mikuz, Crni Vrh Observatory.
Comets visible today at Crni Vrh Observatory
| Comet | Mag | T | Source | Best time | Const | Obs | Chart | Comet PK | Comet MPC | Type |
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Location: Crni Vrh Observatory
Latitude: 45.94583; longitude: 14.07111; elevation: 726.0Comet finding charts provided by Dominic Ford: https://in-the-sky.org/
Lightcurve of comet C/2023 E1 (ATLAS)
Recent observations
| Type | Comet | Obs date | Meth | Mag | T | App | P | Dia | DC | Tail | Tail unit | PA | User |
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Top news
New Moravian Instruments Camera type keys
ICQ confirmed new abbreviation keys
Latest news
Asteroid's comet-like tail Is not made of dust, solar observatories reveal
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.
Comet impacts formed continents when Solar System entered arms of Milky Way
New Comets C/2022 L1
CBET 5134 & MPEC 2022-L97, issued on 2022, June 13, announce that an apparently asteroidal object discovered on June 4 with the 0.68-m Schmidt reflector of the Catalina Sky Survey has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists elsewhere after the Minor Planet Center posted it to the PCCP webpage on the basis of a comet-like orbit. The new comet has been designated C/2022 L1 (Catalina).
New Comets C/2022 J1
Near-sun comet roasted to death
Astronomers using a fleet of world leading telescopes on the ground and in space have captured images of a periodic rocky near-Sun comet breaking apart. This is the first time such a comet has been caught in the act of disintegrating and could help explain the scarcity of such periodic near-Sun comets.