Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
IAUC 3737: 1982i; N Sgr 1982
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Circular No. 3737
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Postal Address: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
TWX 710-320-6842 ASTROGRAM CAM Telephone 617-864-5758
PERIODIC COMET HALLEY (1982i)
D. C. Jewitt, G. E. Danielson, J. E. Gunn, J. A. Westphal,
D. P. Schneider, A. Dressler, M. Schmidt and B. A. Zimmerman report
that this comet has been recovered using the Space Telescope
Wide-Field Planetary Camera Investigation Definition Team charge-
coupled device placed at the prime focus of the 5.1-m telescope at
Palomar Observatory. Five exposures of 480-s effective duration
each (in seeing measured to be 1".0 fwhm) were taken on Oct. 16
through a broad-band filter centered at 500 nm. Definite images
near the expected position and having the expected motion of
P/Halley were noted. No coma was detected, and the object had a
Thuan-Gunn magnitude of [g] = 24.3 +/- 0.2 (corresponding to V ~
24.2; and presumably B ~ 25). Two exposures were also made in the
[r] band. Preliminary representative positions, which have an
estimated external error of +/- 0s35 in R.A and +/- 5" in Decl. but
greater internal consistency, follow:
1982 UT R.A. (1950.0) Decl.
Oct. 16.47569 7 11 01.9 + 9 33 03
16.49097 7 11 01.8 + 9 33 02
16.52153 7 11 01.7 + 9 33 00
The object is located some 0s6 west of the position predicted by
D. K. Yeomans (1981, The Comet Halley Handbook), suggesting that T
= 1986 Feb. 9.3 UT. Confusion with a minor planet would be extremely
unlikely. An attempt to confirm the recovery on Oct. 19
was successful in the sense that no objects were detected at the
Oct. 16 locations and that the comet's image would then have been
in the glare of a star: the dense stellar field has in fact
thwarted other attempts to recover the comet during the past
month. The recovery brightness indicates that the 1981 Dec. 18
attempt (cf. IAUC 3688) failed to record the comet by a very small
margin and for an assumed geometric albedo of 0.5 leads to a radius
of 1.4 +/- 0.2 km. The comet's heliocentric and geocentric
distances at recovery were 11.04 and 10.93 AU, respectively.
NOVA SAGITTARII 1982
Corrigendum. On IAUC 3736, line 17, the first astrometric
position should be attributed to J. Hers, Sedgefield.
1982 October 21 (3737) Brian G. Marsden
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