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IAUC 6713: C/1997 P1; C/1996 M1; N SMC 1996

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 6713
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)


COMET C/1997 P1 (SOHO)
    C. St. Cyr, Naval Research Laboratory, reports, for the SOHO-LASCO
Consortium (see IAUC 6685), the discovery by S. Stezelberger of a
another comet in SOHO-LASCO C3 coronagraph images.  This comet had a tail
that was at least 3 solar radii long, and a preliminary estimate
indicates that it was brighter than m1 = 4.  Measurements by D. Biesecker
and St. Cyr been reduced by G. V. Williams and are given on MPEC 1997-P04
in detail, the approximate discovery position being:

                1997 UT           R.A. (2000) Decl.
                Aug.  3.865       8 26.5      +14 06

C3 observations extend to Aug. 5.700 UT, while C2 observations are from
Aug. 5.634 to 5.762, at which time the solar distance was 2.7 radii.  The
comet is apparently a Kreutz sungrazer--in fact, second in brightness to
C/1996 Y1 among the Kreutz sungrazers observed by SOHO--but it is not
possible to obtain a meaningful orbit solution from the complete data set.


COMET C/1996 M1 (SOHO)
     St. Cyr also reports the discovery of another evident Kreutz
sungrazer, no brighter than m1 = 8, by Biesecker and B. McCarty in an
automated search of archival SOHO-LASCO C3 coronagraph data.  There was
no evidence of a tail, and the comet was not found in C2 data.

                1996 UT           R.A. (2000) Decl.
                June 17.775       5 41.1      +19 55

Measurements as above are given on MPEC 1997-P05, together with an orbit
from all the available data.


NOVA IN THE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD 1996
     D. L. Welch, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, reports:
"The MACHO collaboration (cf. IAUC 6312) has discovered an apparent
nova in the Small Magellanic Cloud.  Located at R.A. = 0h54m43s.04,
Decl. = -72d32'20".8 (equinox 2000.0), the nova peaked in brightness
around 1996 June 8.  However, our magnitudes around peak brightness
are unreliable due to saturation.  The last point before eruption
was taken on May 29.77 UT.  The next observation, on June 4.75,
indicates that the nova had brightened by 5.4 mag.  Two slope
changes in the declining portion of the lightcurve occurred around
June 20 and Aug. 17."

                      (C) Copyright 1997 CBAT
1997 August 7                  (6713)              Brian G. Marsden

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