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IAUC 7071: P/1998 VS24

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                                                  Circular No. 7071
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)


COMET P/1998 VS24 (LINEAR)
     On further examining the Nov. 10-11 observations, published on MPS
3154, of an apparently unremarkable asteroidal discovery from the LINEAR
program, G. V. Williams made identifications with isolated sets of
observations from Visnjan on Oct. 24, 28 (the latter having been published
on MPS 2894 as one of two objects that were both erroneously identified with
1998 UD19) and Nov. 26.  The resulting orbit was very cometary in form.
Furthermore, he recognized that the object had made an extremely
close approach (< 0.01 AU) to Jupiter in Oct. 1971, with additional
approaches to 0.5-0.7 AU in both 1983 and 1995.  Here are representative
observations:

     1998 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.        m2    Observer
     Oct. 24.84196    3 03 16.98   +10 45 25.2          Visnjan
          28.91355    3 00 54.41   +10 30 48.8   17.9     "
     Nov. 10.25724    2 53 13.55   + 9 48 34.3   18.5   LINEAR
          11.28224    2 52 34.86   + 9 45 20.5   18.5     "
          26.73186    2 43 34.79   + 9 05 16.9          Visnjan

Following placement of the object in The NEO Confirmation Page yesterday,
observations during Dec. 18.9-19.3 UT have been reported by J. Ticha
and M. Tichy (Klet), P. Pravec (Ondrejov), W. B. Offutt (Cloudcroft) and
G. C. L. Aikman (Victoria), most of whom remark that the object indeed
seems to be of cometary appearance.  Offutt, using a 0.6-m f/7
Ritchey-Chretien, specifically notes: "Faint, somewhat asymmetrical coma
extending about 6" north, 9" east, 14" south and 9" west of the central
condensation, which is itself featureless, having a 'diameter' of
approximately 5" (two to three times the extent of nearby star images
having a similar peak intensity) and noticeable elongation in the
north-south direction."  Further details on the astrometry and orbit
computation are given on MPEC 1998-Y17.

                    Epoch = 1998 Nov.  3.0 TT
     T = 1998 Nov.  6.3700 TT         Peri. = 245.1677
     e = 0.244762                     Node  = 159.1699  2000.0
     q = 3.402590 AU                  Incl. =   5.0282
       a =  4.505324 AU    n = 0.1030659    P =   9.563 years

1998/99     R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r    Elong. Phase      m2
Dec. 13     2 37.14    + 8 47.4    2.606    3.407  138.5   11.0     18.4
     23     2 35.43    + 8 50.8    2.713    3.409  128.1   13.1     18.6
Jan.  2     2 35.63    + 9 05.0    2.837    3.413  118.1   14.7     18.8
     12     2 37.72    + 9 28.9    2.973    3.416  108.6   15.8     18.9

                      (C) Copyright 1998 CBAT
1998 December 19               (7071)              Brian G. Marsden

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