Circular No. 8764

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION

Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.

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COMET P/2006 U2 (JEDICKE) J. V. Scotti, University of Arizona, reports the recovery of comet

P/1995 A1 with the Spacewatch II telescope at Kitt Peak. The object looks essentially stellar — no obvious coma or tail — though the image appears just a little ‘softer’ than stars of similar brightness in the field. The indicated correction to the prediction on MPC 51823 is ΔT = −1.0 day.

2006 UT  α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Mag.
Oct. 22.19236  23^{h}57^{m}32.^{s}02  −23^{o}51′46′′.4  20.7
22.20362  23 57 31.77  −23 51 46.5  20.8
22.21474  23 57 31.49  −23 51 46.8  20.8
23.22068  23 57 10.11  −23 51 53.6  20.9
23.23188  23 57 09.87  −23 51 53.4  20.7
23.24423  23 57 09.59  −23 51 53.8  20.9

The following orbital elements, linking the observations at the two apparitions, are by B. G. Marsden:

Epoch = 1993 Aug. 1.0 TT

T = 1993 Aug. 17.2819 TT  ω = 295.^{o}9191
e = 0.308106  Ω = 116.0169 }2000.0
q = 4.082327 AU  i = 19.8756

a = 5.900222 AU n^{o} = 0.0687704 P = 14.33 years

Epoch = 2007 Dec. 6.0 TT

T = 2007 Dec. 2.9575 TT  ω = 295.^{o}4577
e = 0.307871  Ω = 115.8517 }2000.0
q = 4.086887 AU  i = 19.8746

a = 5.904807 AU n^{o} = 0.0686903 P = 14.35 years

2006TT α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Δ  r  ϵ  β  Mag.
Oct. 22 23^{h}57.^{m}60 −23^{o}51.^{′}7 3.720 4.493 136.^{o}4 8.^{o}8 18.4
Nov. 1 23 54.55 −23 46.6 3.804 4.476 127.3 10.2 18.4
11 23 52.77 −23 27.7 3.905 4.458 118.1 11.3 18.4
21 23 52.39 −22 56.3 4.019 4.441 109.0 12.1 18.5
Dec. 1 23 53.46 −22 14.1 4.143 4.424 100.1 12.7 18.5
11 23 55.96 −21 22.9 4.270 4.407  91.5 12.9 18.5
21 23 59.79 −20 24.4 4.400 4.391  83.0 12.9 18.6
31 0 04.84 −19 20.1 4.526 4.374  74.9 12.5 18.6
2006 October 23  \begin{matrix}c \\ ◯ \end{matrix} Copyright 2006 CBAT  Daniel W. E. Green