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IAUC 8578: P/2002 EX_12; C/2005 O1

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 8578
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 P/2002 EX_12 (NEAT)
     An apparently asteroidal object reported by NEAT, and
designated 2002 EX_12 (discovery observation given below; cf. MPS
52825), has been reported as showing a cometary appearance by
observers at two different sites.  B. D. Warner, Colorado Springs,
CO, writes that his CCD frames taken with a 0.35-m Schmidt-
Cassegrain reflector on 2005 July 28.26 UT show a 77" tail in p.a.
144 deg, while frames taken on July 29.26 show a 90" tail in p.a.
145 deg.  A. Fitzsimmons, Queen's University, Belfast, reports that
the object showed no coma but a faint, straight tail extending 30"
in p.a. 145 deg on R-band images taken on July 29.5 with the 2.0-m
'Faulkes Telescope North' at Haleakala; he adds that observations
with that telescope on 2005 May 10.5 and with the 3.5-m New
Technology Telescope on May 14.3 did not obviously show a tail.

     2002 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Mar. 15.26990   12 19 20.62   - 0 28 06.9   19.8

The following orbital elements are taken from MPEC 2005-P01:

                    Epoch = 2005 Aug. 18.0 TT
     T = 2005 Sept.17.8587 TT         Peri. = 217.9272
     e = 0.767520                     Node  = 176.2462  2000.0
     q = 0.605325 AU                  Incl. =  11.3189
       a =  2.603775 AU    n = 0.2345843    P =   4.202 years


COMET C/2005 O1 (NEAT)
     Another apparently asteroidal object found by NEAT (discovery
observation below) has also been found to show cometary activity by
Fitzsimmons, his R-band CCD frames taken with the 2.0-m reflector
on July 31.5 UT showing a roughly symmetrical coma extending to
3".5 from the object's condensation.

     2005 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     July 27.39588   22 31 49.38   -21 25 10.7   19.1

The available astrometry, preliminary parabolic orbital elements (T
= 2005 May 23.987 TT, q = 3.61757 AU, Peri. = 325.726 deg, Node =
304.594 deg, i = 156.196 deg, equinox 2000.0), and an ephemeris
appear on MPEC 2005-P09.

                      (C) Copyright 2005 CBAT
2005 August 1                  (8578)            Daniel W. E. Green

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