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IAUC 4692: 1988q; U Gem; AM Her

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 4692
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Postal Address: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Telephone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)
TWX 710-320-6842 ASTROGRAM CAM     EASYLINK 62794505
MARSDEN or GREEN@CFA.BITNET    MARSDEN or GREEN@CFAPS2.SPAN


COMET 1988q (SMM 7)
     During this past week A. L. Stanger, High Altitude Observatory,
discovered a bright sungrazing comet during routine inspection of the
coronagraph/polarimeter images from the Solar Maximum Mission.  O. C.
St. Cyr, Goddard Space Flight Center, communicates the following
reductions by D. Pitone and B. Twambly, SMM Flight Dynamics Facility, of
Stanger's measurements (accuracy 0.1 solar radii and 1 deg p.a.):

     1988 UT            R.A. (1950) Decl.
     Oct. 24.68333    13 52 10     -12 21.6
          24.74861    13 54 05     -12 12.6

Another observation at Oct. 24.81 had the comet's head under the
occulting disk, and the comet was not detected as it receded from the
sun.  As in the case of SMM 5 some 13 days earlier (cf. IAUC 4668),
parts of the tail of SMM 7 saturated the vidicon detector, suggesting
that SMM 7 was also brighter than mag -4.  The tail was straight and had
a sharp southern edge.  Computations by the undersigned show that the
observations can be represented within 1 arcmin by the orbital elements
for SMM 5 and T = 1988 Oct. 24.87 ET, and the fit is even better with T
= 1988 Oct. 24.88 ET and q changed from 0.0053 to 0.0058 AU.


U GEMINORUM
     Visual magnitude estimates: Dec. 8.87 UT, 9.2 (E. Stomeo, Venice,
Italy); 9.98, 9.3 (R. Monella, Covo, Italy); 10.93, 9.4 (S. Baroni,
Milan, Italy); 11.93, 9.2 (A. Boattini, Florence, Italy); 12.99, 8.9
(Monella); 13.98, 8.9 (Monella); 15.86, 9.9 (P. Schmeer, Bischmisheim,
West Germany).


AM HERCULIS
     Visual magnitude estimates: June 2.95 UT, 13.3 (R. Monella, Covo,
Italy); July 4.8, 12.9 (A. Mizser, Budapest, Hungary); Aug. 4.91, 13.6
(E. Schweitzer, Strasbourg, France); Sept. 8.96, 13.4 (A. Boattini,
Florence, Italy); Oct. 3.96, 12.6 (J. Ripero, Madrid, Spain); Nov. 1.71,
13.2 (Boattini); Dec. 6.71, 12.9 (Boattini).


1988 December 17               (4692)              Brian G. Marsden

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