Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams -- Image credits

IAUC 8678: P/2006 D1; RS Oph

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 8677 SEARCH Read IAUC 8679

View IAUC 8678 in .dvi, .ps or .PDF format.
IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 8678
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/2006 D1 (HILL)
     R. Hill reports his discovery of a comet with a tail about 40"
long in p.a. 300 deg on CCD images taken with the 0.68-m Schmidt
telescope in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey (discovery
observation tabulated below).  Following posting on the 'NEO
Confirmation Page', G. Hug and D. Tibbets report that CCD frames
taken on Feb. 23.3 UT with the 0.7-m reflector at Eskridge, KS,
show a tail 70" long in p.a. 310 deg, while the object appears
diffuse with a hint of tail in p.a. about 300 deg on frames taken
by Hug on Feb. 24.4 with a 0.30-m Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector at
Scranton, KS.  C. Hergenrother writes that a co-added 1500-s R-band
exposure, taken on Feb. 24 with the University of Arizona 1.54-m
Kuiper telescope at Catalina Station, shows P/2006 D1 to have a nearly
stellar coma and a straight, narrow tail 125" long in p.a. 305 deg.

     2006 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Feb. 22.36014   12 25 45.91   + 2 37 03.0   20.3

The available astrometry, the following preliminary elliptical
orbital elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2006-D38.

     T = 2005 Nov.  6.000 TT          Peri. = 115.649
     e = 0.69463                      Node  =   1.202   2000.0
     q = 1.74153 AU                   Incl. =  14.846
       a =  5.70307 AU     n = 0.072367     P =  13.6 years


RS OPHIUCHI
     S. P. S. Eyres, University of Central Lancashire; T. J.
O'Brien and T. W. B. Muxlow, University of Manchester; M. F. Bode,
Liverpool John Moores University; and A. Evans, Keele University,
report the detection of RS Oph in the radio.  On Feb. 17.5 UT (4.7
days after the reported outburst; cf. IAUC 8671), Very Large Array
(VLA) observations show fluxes of 2.8 +/- 0.2 mJy at 21.1 cm, 15.2
+/- 0.2 mJy at 6.2 cm, 23.2 +/- 0.6 mJy at 2 cm, and 26.2 +/- 0.5
mJy at 1.3 cm.  Observations with MERLIN show 5-cm fluxes of 31.2
+/- 0.9 mJy on Feb. 18 and 39.5 +/- 0.9 mJy on Feb. 20.  This is
much brighter than anticipated at this stage when compared with
observations of the 1985 outburst (23 mJy on day 18 of outburst; cf.
Padin, Davis, and Bode 1985, Nature 315, 306).  Further VLA, MERLIN,
VLBA, and EVN observations are being scheduled.  All observers are
urged to secure spectroscopic and photometric observations of this
star over the next few days, weeks, and months.

                      (C) Copyright 2006 CBAT
2006 February 24               (8678)            Daniel W. E. Green

Read IAUC 8677 SEARCH Read IAUC 8679

View IAUC 8678 in .dvi, .ps or .PDF format.

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

Valid HTML 4.01!