Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams -- Image credits

IAUC 8659: 73P; P/2005 YQ_127

The following International Astronomical Union Circular may be linked-to from your own Web pages, but must not otherwise be redistributed (see these notes on the conditions under which circulars are made available on our WWW site).


Read IAUC 8658  SEARCH Read IAUC 8660

View IAUC 8659 in .dvi, .ps or .PDF format.
IAUC number


                                                  Circular No. 8659
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 73P/SCHWASSMANN-WACHMANN
     J. A. Farrell, Jemez Springs, NM, reports that unfiltered CCD
exposures obtained with a 0.41-m f/8.4 reflector show a companion
to comet 73P moving at the same general direction and rate as the
primary; separations and position angles (+/- 0.02 deg) from the
primary are as follows:  Jan. 6.48831 UT, 1392".3 +/- 0".6 in p.a.
270.28 deg; 7.51252, 1414".4 +/- 0".8 in p.a. 269.90 deg; 9.39304
(through high clouds), 1454".5 +/- 1".8 in p.a. 270.04 deg.  On the
first two nights, the magnitude of the primary was found to be
16.2-16.4, while the secondary was at mag 18.8-19.0.
     Z. Sekanina, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, provides a search
ephemeris for the companion discovered by Farrell.  The few data
points available can be reasonably well linked with the 1995-1996
observations of nucleus B, but the final identification should wait
for additional observations in coming weeks.  The newly found
companion is not identical with fragments A, E, or F observed
between 1995 and 2001 (cf. Sekanina 2005, ICQ 27, 225-240; online
at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/icq/sek_icq_V27_225.pdf).  The
predicted separation distances from the main comet (in arcmin) and
position angles (in degrees, for equinox J2000.0) are as follows:
2006 Jan. 15.0 TT, 29'.9, 297.9 deg; 25.0, 35'.4, 298.0 deg; Feb.
4.0, 42'.3, 297.9 deg; 14.0, 51'.3, 297.6 deg; 24.0, 63'.0, 297.2
deg; Mar. 6.0, 78'.6, 296.5 deg.


COMET P/2005 YQ_127 (LINEAR)
     Further to IAUC 8658, Mannucci et al. note the presence of a
faint 7" coma on their images from Jan. 9.9 UT, and numerous other
CCD observations confirming the cometary nature of this object have
been reported.  F. Bellini and L. Buzzi (Varese, Italy, 0.60-m
reflector) write that the object was clearly diffuse with a
moderate central condensation and a round coma about 10" in
diameter, elongated in p.a. 135 deg on Jan. 10.05.  S. Foglia, D.
Crespi, G. Galli, and S. Minuto (near Novara Veveri, Italy, 0.40-m
f/4 reflector) note that images taken on Jan. 9.91 show a slightly
diffuse coma of diameter 7" elongated in p.a. 240 deg.  P. Corelli
(Pagnacco, Italy, 0.20-m Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector) adds that
images taken on Jan. 8.76 and 9.80 show a faint, diffuse coma of
diameter 15".  C. W. Hergenrother (Steward Observatory, 1.54-m
Kuiper telescope) found a diffuse 40" coma on his 120-sec R-band
exposures taken on Jan. 4.39.  Images taken by E. Guido and G.
Sostero (Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, 0.25-m f/3.4 reflector) on
Jan. 10.3 show a faint, diffuse coma nearly 20" with a total R-band
magnitude of about 16.0.

                      (C) Copyright 2006 CBAT
2006 January 15                (8659)            Daniel W. E. Green

Read IAUC 8658  SEARCH Read IAUC 8660

View IAUC 8659 in .dvi, .ps or .PDF format.


Our Web policy. Index to the CBAT/MPC/ICQ pages.


Valid HTML 4.01!