Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
IAUC 7502: P/2000 S4
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Circular No. 7502
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)
COMET P/2000 S4
T. Gehrels reports his discovery of a faint comet on Oct. 2
images taken with the Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak, noting it
to have a 4" tail in p.a. 170 deg. T. B. Spahr, Minor Planet
Center, linked it to an asteroidal object observed on Sept. 23 and
26 reported earlier by LINEAR and then found LINEAR observations
made on Sept. 1. At the request of Gehrels, P. Massey obtained
images of the object in subarcsecond seeing with the 4-m Mayall
Telescope at Kitt Peak on Oct. 3.25 UT, showing the comet to have a
fan-shaped structure 4" long spanning p.a. 0-80 deg. Available
astrometry:
2000 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m2 Observer
Sept. 1.19481 21 26 52.70 + 6 27 38.3 19.0 LINEAR
1.20801 21 26 52.56 + 6 27 21.1 19.4 "
1.22118 21 26 52.42 + 6 27 06.5 19.5 "
1.23439 21 26 52.24 + 6 26 50.8 19.5 "
1.24758 21 26 52.01 + 6 26 34.6 19.6 "
23.19398 21 27 29.17 - 1 01 08.4 19.6 "
23.20892 21 27 29.36 - 1 01 24.5 20.0 "
23.22341 21 27 29.59 - 1 01 43.8 20.0 "
23.23814 21 27 29.74 - 1 01 59.9 19.3 "
26.09867 21 28 24.27 - 1 57 57.5 18.9 "
26.11347 21 28 24.51 - 1 58 13.3 19.7 "
26.12822 21 28 24.95 - 1 58 29.1 19.9 "
26.14362 21 28 25.13 - 1 58 47.7 19.7 "
Oct. 2.15363 21 31 00.80 - 3 50 58.1 20.5 Gehrels
2.17455 21 31 01.40 - 3 51 21.5 21.1 "
2.19557 21 31 02.00 - 3 51 43.6 20.2 "
3.16027 21 31 32.33 - 4 08 56.8 19.8 "
3.16492 21 31 32.56 - 4 09 01.1 19.9 "
3.17061 21 31 32.69 - 4 09 07.4 20.3 "
3.30748 21 31 36.86 - 4 11 32.0 19.7 "
3.31192 21 31 36.99 - 4 11 37.9 19.6 "
3.31642 21 31 37.17 - 4 11 41.6 19.8 "
Orbital elements from the above observations:
T = 2000 Oct. 19.2225 TT Peri. = 172.3746
e = 0.682838 Node = 174.6363 2000.0
q = 2.265755 AU Incl. = 28.3383
a = 7.143832 AU n = 0.0516187 P = 19.094 years
(C) Copyright 2000 CBAT
2000 October 3 (7502) Daniel W. E. Green
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