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IAUC 6653: SUNGRAZING COMETS; C/1996 J1

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                                                  Circular No. 6653
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)
BMARSDEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or DGREEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/cbat.html
Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)


SUNGRAZING COMETS
     Further to IAUC 6650, C. St. Cyr, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
has also reported detections of other comets in images obtained with the
SOHO coronagraphs, the following approximate discovery positions being
summarized from the more complete reductions from C2 and C3 data by G. V.
Williams on MPEC 1997-J06 to 1997-J09:

     1996 UT           R.A. (2000) Decl.
     Aug. 20.933       9 34.9      +10 17       C/1996 Q2
          30.073      10 14.2      + 7 49       C/1996 Q3
     Sept.22.265      11 28.5      - 1 32       C/1996 S3
     Dec. 22.490      18 12.9      -26 21       C/1996 Y1

C/1996 Q2 and C/1996 Y1 were discovered by Shane Stezelberger, SOHO-LASCO
operations, C/1996 Q3 and C/1996 S3 by D. Biesecker, University of
Birmingham.  Orbital computations by the undersigned on the same MPECs
suggest that all these SOHO comets are Kreutz sungrazers, with T =
Aug. 22.13, Aug. 30.87, Sept. 23.58 and Dec. 23.26, respectively.


COMET C/1996 J1 (EVANS-DRINKWATER)
     S. Nakano, Sumoto, Japan, reports that low-altitude CCD observations
by J. Kobayashi (using a 0.41-m reflector at Kumamoto Civil Astronomical
Observatory) on May 5.8 UT show a bright condensation ("nucleus A")
of m1 = 9.8 and a fainter condensation ("nucleus B") of m1 = 12.9,
separated from the former by about 81" in p.a. 72 deg.  There is a tail
5' long in p.a. 260 deg, probably from nucleus A and thus influencing its
brightness estimate above.  The comet's splitting was confirmed by A.
Sugie (using a 0.60-m reflector at Dynic Astronomical Observatory) on
May 9.8, with the condensations at m1 = 12.6 and 13.7, respectively.
From its better fit with the 1996 observations, Nakano suggests that
nucleus B is the principal one, a point that is consistent with its
earlier perihelion time (by 0.12 day if one represents the observations
with otherwise identical orbital elements).

     Ephemeris from the orbital elements (nucleus B) on MPEC 1997-J10:

1997 TT     R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r    Elong. Phase      m1
May   2     0 55.73    +23 10.5    3.047    2.177   25.1   11.3     12.3
     12     1 14.84    +25 25.6    3.113    2.282   28.9   12.4     12.5
     22     1 32.83    +27 28.9    3.170    2.388   33.2   13.4     12.8
June  1     1 49.70    +29 21.5    3.215    2.495   38.0   14.5     13.0
     11     2 05.39    +31 04.4    3.249    2.602   43.1   15.5     13.2

                      (C) Copyright 1997 CBAT
1997 May 10                    (6653)              Brian G. Marsden

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