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IAUC 8787: COMET C/2006 Y2 (GIBBS); C/2006 U12, C/2006 U13

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 8787
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/2006 Y2 (GIBBS)
     A. R. Gibbs reports his discovery of a comet in the course of
the Catalina Sky Survey (discovery observation tabulated below),
noting that a picture from four co-added 30-s unfiltered CCD images
taken with the Catalina 0.68-m Schmidt telescope on Dec. 26.5 UT
shows a compact coma (stellar in appearance) with a narrow tail 12"
long in p.a. 280 deg; a co-added image from four 90-s co-added
frames taken by Gibbs on Dec. 27.5 shows a dense coma of size 11" x
8", elongated in the direction of tail, which itself was still
narrow and extending 70" in p.a. 290 deg.  Following posting on the
Minor Planet Center's 'NEOCP' webpage, M. Tichy and J. Ticha write
that their CCD images taken with the 1.06-m telescope at Klet on
Dec. 27.1 and 28.1 show the comet to be diffuse.  K. Sarneczky
reports that a co-added image (total exposure 720 s) taken with the
Konkoly Observatory 0.60-m Schmidt telescope on Dec. 27.2 shows a
16" tail in p.a. 280 deg.

     2006 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Dec. 26.48652   12 46 26.25   + 4 26 08.9   18.2

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic
orbital elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2006-Y56.  It
is quite likely that this comet has an orbit of short period.

     T = 2006 Dec. 30.971 TT          Peri. =  27.858
                                      Node  = 119.437   2000.0
     q = 1.36081 AU                   Incl. =  16.188


COMETS C/2006 U12 AND C/2006 U13 (SOHO)
     Additional Kreutz sungrazing comets have been found on SOHO
website images (cf. IAUC 8786).  K. Battams notes that C/2006 U12
was diffuse, small, and faint (reaching mag 7.5).  C/2006 U13 was
tiny, very faint, and slightly diffuse with no tail.

 Comet        2006 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2006 U12   Oct. 24.413  13 49.0  -12 51   C2     TC   2006-X26
 C/2006 U13        25.381  13 52.9  -13 14   C2     HS   2006-X26

                      (C) Copyright 2006 CBAT
2006 December 28               (8787)            Daniel W. E. Green

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