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IAUC 8963: C/2008 O2

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                                                  Circular No. 8963
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 O2 (McNAUGHT)
     R. H. McNaught reports his discovery of a comet on CCD images
obtained with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring
(discovery observation tabulated below), the comet showing a very
condensed 10" coma and a tail 1'.0 long in p.a. 240 deg.  Following
posting on the 'NEOCP' webpage, A. Boattini reports that CCD images
taken with the Mt. Lemmon 1.5-m reflector on July 29.4 UT show a
10"-12" coma and a tail almost 2' long in p.a. 245 deg.  Co-added
60-s CCD images taken on July 29.1 by G. Muler (Lanzarate, Spain,
0.30-m reflector) and measured by G. Sostero show a sharp coma
about 12" in diameter and a tail nearly 30" long toward p.a. 255
deg.  Stacked 60-s CCD images taken on July 29.2 by R. Holmes
(Charleston, IL, U.S.A., 0.81-m reflector; measured by L. Buzzi, S.
Foglia, and himself) show a narrow tail 20" long in p.a. 245 deg;
additional stacked images from Aug. 1.2 show a 30" tail in p.a. 190
deg.  J. C. Pelle reports that CCD images obtained by N. Teamo
(Punaauia, French Polynesia, 0.35-m telescope) on July 30.35-30.37
show a coma with diameter about 23" and a tail > 3' long in p.a.
240 deg.  P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford, Berkshire, England,
0.40-m reflector) writes that images taken on July 29.97 in poor
conditions show a coma diameter of 6" and a tail 15" long in p.a.
250 deg, while in better conditions on July 30.97, the comet showed
an obvious, poorly-condensed coma of diameter 9" and a 35" tail in
p.a. 240 deg.  L. Buzzi (Varese, Italy, 0.60-m f/4.6 reflector)
reports a 10" coma and a 10"-15" tail in p.a. 230 deg on stacked
images obtained on July 31.9.  J. M. Aymami (Tiana, Spain, 0.25-m
f/4.3 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector) notes that his stacked CCD
images from July 31.9 show a tail approximately 10" long in p.a.
220 deg.

     2008 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     July 28.69229   21 30 58.41   -17 00 49.6   17.7

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic
orbital elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2008-P04.  This
comet is likely of short orbital period, but the orbit is still
very indeterminate; additional astrometry is urgently needed.

     T = 2009 Nov. 13.429 TT          Peri. = 118.098
                                      Node  = 320.457   2000.0
     q = 1.33235 AU                   Incl. =  28.676

                      (C) Copyright 2008 CBAT
2008 August 1                  (8963)            Daniel W. E. Green

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