Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams -- Image credits

IAUC 6824: QX Nor; 55P; C/1995 O1; 29P

The following International Astronomical Union Circular may be linked-to from your own Web pages, but must not otherwise be redistributed (see these notes on the conditions under which circulars are made available on our WWW site).

Read IAUC 6823 SEARCH Read IAUC 6825

View IAUC 6824 in .dvi or .ps format.
IAUC number 

                                                 Circular No. 6824
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/iau/cbat.html
Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)


QX NORMAE
     S. Corbel, Centre d'Etudes Atomiques, Saclay; D. Hannikainen,
University of Helsinki Observatory; and J. F. Gonzalez and O. R.
Hainaut, European Southern Observatory (ESO), report:  "Following
the recent x-ray outburst of the soft x-ray transient 4U 1608-52
detected by RXTE (IAUC 6819), observations with the ESO 3.5-m New
Technology Telescope at La Silla revealed that the optical
counterpart QX Nor is also flaring.  Total magnitudes on Feb. 16
(eight days after soft-x-ray maximum) are V = 20.07 +/- 0.06, R =
18.92 +/- 0.04, and I = 17.78 +/- 0.05, which indicate a
brightening of more than 3 mag in R, compared to the quiescent
state (Wachter 1997, Ap.J. 485, 839).  Radio observations and
optical spectroscopy, as well as follow-up photometry, are strongly
encouraged."


COMET 55P/TEMPEL-TUTTLE
     T. L. Hayward, Cornell University; and M. S. Hanner, Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, write:
"We observed comet 55P in the mid-infrared on Jan. 14.5 UT with the
5-m Hale telescope (+ SpectroCam-10).  Imaging at 10.3 microns
revealed a point-like source with flux density 2.1 +/- 0.2 Jy.  A
spectrogram (range 8-13 microns; resolution 100) showed that the
emission was close to a 320-K blackbody, compared to an equilibrium
temperature of 253 K for r = 1.215 AU.  A weak silicate feature may
be present about 5 percent above the continuum.  If the emission
were from a bare nucleus at 320 K, then the observed flux implies a
nuclear radius of 2 km."


COMET C/1995 O1 (HALE-BOPP)
     Total visual magnitude estimates:  Jan. 26.60 UT, 8.1 (A.
Pearce, Nedlands, W. Australia, 20x80 binoculars); Feb. 1.03, 8.2
(J. G. de S. Aguiar, Campinas, Brazil, 0.23-m reflector); 7.60, 8.4
(Pearce); 16.50, 8.6 (M. Mattiazzo, Wallaroo, S. Australia, 0.20-m
reflector); 18.61, 8.4 (Pearce).


COMET 29P/SCHWASSMANN-WACHMANN 1
     Visual m_1 estimates:  Feb. 1.06 UT, 13.1 (K. Sarneczky,
Raktanya, Hungary, 0.25-m reflector); 5.17, 12.5: (K. Hornoch,
Lelekovice, Czech Republic, 0.35-m reflector).
     Corrigendum.  On IAUC 6816, lines 1-2, for Jan. 14.25 and
24.25 UT  read  Jan. 15.25 and 25.25 UT

                      (C) Copyright 1998 CBAT
1998 February 19               (6824)            Daniel W. E. Green

Read IAUC 6823 SEARCH Read IAUC 6825

View IAUC 6824 in .dvi or .ps format.

Our Web policy. Index to the CBAT/MPC/ICQ pages.

Valid HTML 4.01!