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IAUC 8270: C/2003 WT_42; 2004C

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                                                  Circular No. 8270
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)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)


COMET C/2003 WT_42 (LINEAR)
     The Central Bureau has received word that a weak coma has been
imaged for 2003 WT_42, an object originally reported as asteroidal
by LINEAR (discovery observation below; cf. MPEC 2003-W48, MPS
92017), by R. P. Binzel (at the Kitt Peak 4-m telescope) and by J.
Licandro, M. Serra-Ricart, J. de Leon Cruz, and N. Pinilla-Alonso
(at the 3.56-m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo + Near Infrared Camera-
Spectrograph and the 2.5-m Nordic Optical Telescope + Andalucia
Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera).  Binzel reports that, in
1".5 seeing on 2003 Dec. 29.1-29.2 UT with the TV guider, 2003
WT_42 appeared distinctly more diffuse than stars of similar
brightness, with a coma diameter of about 2"; broadband (500-900
nm) images showed larger north-south FWHM profiles when compared to
stars of similar brightness.  Licandro et al. report that a coma
diameter of about 6"-10" (total mag R = 17.4 +/- 0.1; R-J = 0.8 +/-
0.15, which is close to the solar color) was clearly seen on
simultaneous infrared and visible (broadband R and J_s) images of
2003 WT_42 obtained on 2004 Jan. 14.9.

     2003 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Nov. 19.26014    4 04 45.90   +31 43 23.0   17.5

Additional astrometry, the following orbital elements, and an
ephemeris appear on MPEC 2004-B02.

                    Epoch = 2006 Apr. 15.0 TT
     T = 2006 Apr. 11.1570 TT         Peri. =  92.4652
     e = 1.001833                     Node  =  48.4575  2000.0
     q = 5.192305 AU                  Incl. =  31.4164


SUPERNOVA 2004C IN NGC 3683
     W. P. S. Meikle, Imperial College, London; and S. Mattila,
Stockholm Observatory, report observations of SN 2004C carried out
by D. Carter and R. J. Smith, Liverpool John Moores University, on
Jan. 16.2 UT using the Liverpool Telescope (+ RATCam) on La Palma.
Preliminary photometry yields the following values:  g' = 18.31, r'
= 16.74, i' = 16.37, z' = 16.12 (uncertainties about +/- 0.05 mag).
Comparison of the g'-r' and r'-i' colors with the intrinsic g-r and
r-i values for a type-Ic supernova (Poznanski et al. 2002, PASP
114, 833, Fig. 8) at 3 weeks past maximum light (cf. IAUC 8269)
indicates an extinction exceeding A_v = 1.0.

                      (C) Copyright 2004 CBAT
2004 January 16                (8270)            Daniel W. E. Green

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