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 website or exported for further processing, analysis and publication. The database currently contains more than 289000 comet observations of more than 1650 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
Image of comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN), obtained on 2025 Apr. 27 (19h37-19h43UT) with 15-cm, f/6 Maksutov-Cassegrain camera and Canon EOS 6D. Exposure time was 9x30 seconds at ISO 3200. Comet appears to have disintegrated before perihelion. The image shows only a faint cloud of debris without a core. I managed to capture it through cirrus clouds, when it was only about 5 degrees above the horizon. Image scale is 3.0 arc sec/pixel. Copyright © 2025 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 | 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/
Lightcurve of comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN)
Recent observations
| Type | Comet | Obs date | Meth | Mag | T | App | P | Dia | DC | Tail | Tail unit | PA | User | Pk |
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Latest news
Good News and bad News about Comet Atlas
Astrophysicists reveal structure of 74 exocomet belts orbiting nearby stars in landmark survey
Astrophysicists led by a team from Trinity College Dublin have -- for the first time -- imaged a large number of exocomet belts around nearby stars, and the tiny pebbles within them. The crystal-clear images show light being emitted from these millimetre-sized pebbles within the belts that orbit 74 nearby stars of a wide variety of ages -- from those that are just emerging from birth to those in more mature systems like our own Solar System.
Sungrazing comet at dawn
Philae’s extraordinary comet landing relived
On 12 November 2014, after a ten year journey through the Solar System and over 500 million kilometres from home, Rosetta’s lander Philae made space exploration history by touching down on a comet for the first time. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of this extraordinary feat, we celebrate Philae’s impressive achievements at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
NASA's Webb Reveals Unusual Jets of Volatile Gas from Icy Centaur 29P
Scientists revealed unexpected outgassing from this object galloping across the outer solar system.
Similar to the Ancient Greek mythological creature of the same name, centaurs in astronomy are in an in-between dynamical phase: leaving their distant and stable orbits beyond Neptune and migrating to the inner solar system, while also entering an active cometary phase. Being stored for billions of years in the freezing confines of the outer solar system, they preserve key insights about the birth of our solar system, which are uniquely revealed as they slowly start to unfreeze in this transient stage.
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers observed Centaur 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, one of the most active and intriguing objects in the outer solar system. The high degree of detail captured by the telescope led to the discovery of new, previously unknown jets of gas, which is helping inform theories about how centaurs and planets are formed.