220P McNaught

Closest to Sun: 2026 June 14 at 1.56AU
Closest to Earth: 2026 October 12 at 1.01AU

Maximum magnitude 6.0 in early August 2026

Comet 220P McNaught Mega Outbursts!

Discovered by Rob McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in 2004, this very faint periodic comet with an
orbital period of 5.5 years, was not expected to do much at its 2026 return.
However, at the start of June 2026, the ZTF survey reported that a significant outburst had occurred.
Confirming observations indicated that the comet had exploded in brightness, to an order of 10 magnitudes,
from a very faint magnitude 18 to magnitude 8!
This type of activity is reminiscent of the 17P Holmes explosion in 2007.
During July 2026, the comet slowly faded to magnitude 12 as the coma expanded considerably, but sported a nice dust tail.
The comet was situated in Pisces in the morning sky, trekking slowly eastwards, then entered Cetus on July 22.

Suddenly, on August 5, another reported outburst.
I quickly used a remote telescope located in Utah to make a confirmation, estimating magnitude 8.4 with 3’ coma.
On August 8, I managed a visual estimate using 8x40mm binoculars estimating mag 6.6 with strongly condensed coma 7' wide.
It faded slowly over the following weeks but developed a beautiful bow shock and dust tail (seen in above photo)

Image of 220P on 2026 September 9 showing a 1 degree dust tail

220P reaches opposition during October 2026 as it treks westwards through the constellations of Taurus and Cetus,
rising in the late evening hours but best observed after midnight. Watch out for more outbursts!