Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams

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IAUC 8942: C/2008 J3; C/2008 J2

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 8942
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/2008 J3 (McNAUGHT)
     R. H. McNaught reports his discovery of another comet on CCD
images obtained with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope at Siding
Spring (discovery observation tabulated below), the object
described as having a condensed coma of diameter 6"-8" and a faint
fan tail 30"-40" long spanning 20 deg toward p.a. 240 deg.  His
images on May 11.66 UT show a coma with FWHM = 6" and a narrow tail
45" long in p.a. 245 deg; stacked images taken by McNaught on May
12.64 show a 40" tail in p.a. 245 deg that appears as a fan
spanning p.a. 230-260 deg.  Following posting on the Minor Planet
Center's 'NEOCP' webpage, A. C. Gilmore and P. M. Kilmartin (Mt.
John 1.0-m f/7.7 reflector) report that their CCD images from May
11.62-11.63 show a coma diameter of about 7" and a narrow tail 25"
long in p.a. 250 deg; their exposures from May 12.71-12.72 show a
tail 25" long in p.a. 250 deg, a coma diameter of about 10" with
total magnitude 18.7-19.0 measured in a 12"-diameter aperture, and
a starlike condensation of mag 19.9 as measured in a 5"-diameter
aperture.  N. Teamo, Punaauia, French Polynesia, finds a tail 15"
long in p.a. 250 deg on his images taken on May 12.55-12.58 with a
0.41-m f/8.0 reflector; J. C. Pelle measures a tail 7' long in p.a.
240 deg from additional images taken by Teamo on May 12.61-12.63.

     2008 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     May  10.69282   21 45 44.98   -42 44 30.3   18.4

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic
orbital elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2008-J64; this
comet may be of short period.

     T = 2008 Apr.  3.968 TT          Peri. = 259.341
                                      Node  =  28.660   2000.0
     q = 3.53197 AU                   Incl. =  25.427


COMET C/2008 J2 (BESHORE)
     Further to IAUC 8941, J. McGaha revises his description from
May 7.3 UT:  10-s exposures show a dense condensation of diameter
5" surrounded by a coma of diameter 11"; fifteen stacked 60-s
exposures show a sharp disk of diameter 21" with no diffuseness and
a bright elongation extending about 15".5 from the object's center.
Sixty stacked 10-s exposures from May 10.35 to 10.40 show a uniform
disk of size 12" surrounded by a faint coma of diameter 30" and a
faint 68" tail in p.a. 261 deg.

                      (C) Copyright 2008 CBAT
2008 May 12                    (8942)            Daniel W. E. Green

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