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IAUC 7069: 1940 AB; 1996 FG3

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                                                  Circular No. 7069
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)


1940 AB
     G. Kulin (1940, BZ 22, 17) remarked that 1940 AB (originally
announced in BZ 22, 11 and on RI 2073) appeared to be a short-period comet,
and he computed an orbit with e = 0.45.  The object was given the cometary
designations 1940a and 1939 VIII, but subsequent attempts to recover the
object failed.  Acting on advice from the Konkoly Observatory, B. G. Marsden
(MPC 6815) computed a main-belt asteroidal orbit for the object (with
assumed e = 0.05), calling it again 1940 AB, and he omitted the entry
1939 VIII from the Catalogue of Cometary Orbits, already in the
1972 edition.  The object was also excluded from consideration as a comet
when the new cometary designation system was introduced in 1994.  Very
recently, A. Doppler (MPEC 1998-Y10) made the asteroidal identification
1988 RZ4 = 1998 KD53, to which G. V. Williams (ibid.) has added further
identifications, including 1940 AB, which is therefore now a proven
main-belt minor planet having e = 0.09, a = 3.16 AU, i = 14 deg.


1996 FG3
     S. Mottola, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt, Berlin,
and F. Lahulla, Observatorio Astronomico, Madrid, report: "Our
photometric observations of this Apollo object (MPEC 1996-F07, 1997-B05,
1998-Y04, etc.) taken on Dec. 13.0, 14.0 and 15.0 UT with the
Max-Planck-Institut 1.23-m telescope at Calar Alto reveal a complex
lightcurve with an amplitude of 0.25 mag.  Two incommensurate
frequencies appear clearly in the Fourier spectrum: f1 at 2.97/day and
f2 at 13.3/day.  The same periodicities are also present in our data
taken with the 0.60-m Bochum telescope at La Silla over ten nights
of observations during the discovery apparition.  These features are
compatible with an excited, nonprincipal-axis rotation.  We encourage
observations to characterize the rotational state."

1998/99     R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r    Elong. Phase     V
Dec. 17     4 22.79    +31 30.4    0.137    1.115  161.5   16.2    15.3
     19     4 19.90    +30 17.5    0.150    1.126  159.5   17.8    15.6
     21     4 17.75    +29 15.4    0.164    1.137  157.4   19.4    15.8
     23     4 16.21    +28 22.3    0.177    1.147  155.3   21.0    16.1
     25     4 15.18    +27 36.5    0.191    1.157  153.1   22.6    16.3
     27     4 14.58    +26 56.9    0.206    1.168  151.0   24.1    16.5
     29     4 14.34    +26 22.5    0.220    1.178  149.0   25.5    16.7
     31     4 14.43    +25 52.5    0.235    1.187  147.0   26.8    16.9
Jan.  2     4 14.79    +25 26.4    0.250    1.197  145.0   28.1    17.1

                      (C) Copyright 1998 CBAT
1998 December 18               (7069)              Brian G. Marsden

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