Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams

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IAUC 8897: 17P; P/2007 T4; C/2007 T1; 2007 VW_266

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 8897
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://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)


COMET 17P/HOLMES
     H. H. Hsieh, A. Fitzsimmons, and D. L. Pollacco, Queen's
University, Belfast, on behalf of the WASP Consortium, report that
the SuperWASP-N facility was serendipitously imaging the position
of comet 17P throughout October, and that the comet is not visible
in unfiltered CCD images to a limiting magnitude of V approximately
15 at or prior to Oct. 23.27 UT.  The comet is visible in the next
image taken on Oct. 23.99 and brightens steadily, becoming
saturated at approximately Oct. 24.10.  From photometry performed
using apertures 70" in radius (5.1 pixels; 124000 km at the comet),
a nearly 3-fold increase in the comet's brightness is found (from V
approximately 9.7 to 8.6) in the 2.6 hours of unsaturated data.
The brightening of the comet during this period is consistent with
a power law with an exponent of 2, which would be expected from the
linear expansion of an optically thick dust coma.  Assuming a
constant rate of expansion, the time of the comet's intiial
outburst is found to be approximately Oct. 23.8 UT.


COMET P/2007 T4 (GIBBS)
     Additional astrometry and the following revised orbital
elements from MPEC 2007-V101 show this comet (cf. IAUC 8880) to be
of short period:

     T = 2007 July 20.3414 TT         Peri. =  42.3664
     e = 0.614168                     Node  =  37.1654  2000.0
     q = 2.005990 AU                  Incl. =  23.8690
       a =  5.199127 AU    n = 0.0831397    P =  11.9 years


COMET C/2007 T1 (McNAUGHT)
     Revised orbital elements (cf. IAUC 8877) from MPEC 2007-V53:

     T = 2007 Dec. 12.520 TT          Peri. = 233.728
                                      Node  = 111.429   2000.0
     q = 0.96882 AU                   Incl. = 117.646


2007 VW_266
     Another retrograde asteroidal object (i = 108 deg, q = 3.34
AU, P = 12.1 yr, mag about 20) has been discovered, this time via
the Mt. Lemmon survey (details given on MPEC 2007-W21).

                      (C) Copyright 2007 CBAT
2007 November 19               (8897)            Daniel W. E. Green

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