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IAUC 8279: C/2004 B1; SATURN IX (PHOEBE); U Sco

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 8279
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/2004 B1 (LINEAR)
     An apparently asteroidal object reported by the LINEAR project
(discovery observation below), and posted on the NEO Confirmation
Page, has been reported by J. Young (from CCD exposures taken with
the 0.6-m reflector at Table Mountain Observatory on Jan. 30.1 UT)
to have a 3" round coma with a broad extension 4" long in p.a.
300-320 deg.

     2004 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Jan. 29.15539    5 12 54.24   + 0 59 16.2   19.1

The available astrometry (including prediscovery observations made
on Jan. 28.4 by the NEAT project at Haleakala), the following
preliminary parabolic orbital elements, and an ephemeris appear on
MPEC 2004-B73.

     T = 2006 May   9.827 TT          Peri. = 322.421
                                      Node  = 277.051   2000.0
     q = 2.15247 AU                   Incl. = 123.270


SATURN IX (PHOEBE)
     J. Bauer, D. Simonelli, and B. Buratti, Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, report that
photometric observations of Saturn IX, obtained with the Table
Mountain Observatory 0.6-m telescope on 2003 Dec. 2-3 and 2004 Jan.
13-16 UT in support of NASA's Cassini mission, show a magnitude
variation of 0.12 in Johnson V and yield an updated period of
9.2735 +/- 0.0015 hr (a factor-of-10 improvement over prior
publications).  The light-curve peak was at 2004 Jan. 14.308 UT,
which they find corresponds to longitude 355 +/- 15 deg (sub-
observer point).


U SCORPII
     B. E. Schaefer, Louisiana State University, writes that a
previously unknown eruption of the recurrent nova U Sco was
discovered on Harvard College Observatory archival photographs:
plate AC18624 shows U Sco at B = 9.1 (near maximum brightness) on
1917 Mar. 6.  With eruptions of U Sco having occurred in 1906,
1917, 1936, 1945, 1969, 1979, 1987, and 1999, Schaefer notes that U
Sco has a fairly constant recurrence cycle of 8-12 yr -- with about
25 percent of the outbursts being missed due to proximity to the
sun (including potential missed outbursts around 1926 and 1957) --
adding that the next U Sco eruption should occur sometime during
2007-2011.

                      (C) Copyright 2004 CBAT
2004 January 30                (8279)            Daniel W. E. Green

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