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IAUC 8852: C/2007 M2; C/2007 M3

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 8852
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://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)


COMET C/2007 M2 (CATALINA)
     An apparently asteroidal object discovered by the Catalina Sky
Survey (discovery observation tabulated below), and posted on the
Minor Planet Center's 'NEOCP' webpage, has been found to show a
round 6" coma with little central condensation and no hint of a
tail in long exposures taken by J. Young on June 21.2 UT with the
Table Mountain 0.61-m reflector.

     2007 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     June 20.18640   11 47 05.74   +40 16 38.7   20.4

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic
orbital elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2007-M30.

     T = 2008 Nov. 28.605 TT          Peri. = 229.179
                                      Node  = 357.947   2000.0
     q = 3.03493 AU                   Incl. =  80.452


COMET C/2007 M3 (LINEAR)
     An apparently asteroidal object discovered by the LINEAR
survey, and posted on the NEOCP, has been found to show cometary
appearance by other astrometric observers.  L. Donato, E. Guido,
and G. Sostero write that their twenty co-added 60-s unfiltered CCD
images taken on June 22.0 UT with a 0.45-m reflector at Remanzacco,
Italy, show a small coma nearly 15" in diameter with a broad tail
25" long toward p.a. 125 deg.  Twenty co-added 60-s exposures by
Guido and Sostero obtained remotely on June 22.3 with a 0.25-m
reflector at Mayhill, New Mexico, show the presence of a coma
nearly 10" in diameter elongated toward p.a. 120 deg.  J. Young
writes that his exposures at Table Mountain on June 23.32-23.34
show a very bright round coma of mag 17.0 and diameter 12" with
strong central condensation; there was a very faint broad tail to
the east, 40" in length, with p.a. between 110 deg and 120 deg --
the tail appearing straight with same width from the coma to its
end.

     2007 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     June 21.31323   19 48 08.71   + 2 13 32.0   17.2

The available astrometry, preliminary parabolic orbital elements
(T = 2007 Sept. 23.886 TT, q = 3.41866 AU, Peri. = 130.992 deg,
Node = 42.444 deg, i = 161.677 deg, equinox 2000.0), and an
ephemeris appear on MPEC 2007-M31.

                      (C) Copyright 2007 CBAT
2007 June 23                   (8852)            Daniel W. E. Green

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