Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams -- Image credits

IAUC 8986: C/2008 S2 = C/2001 D1 = C/2004 X7; C/2008 S3

The following International Astronomical Union Circular may be linked-to from your own Web pages, but must not otherwise be redistributed (see these notes on the conditions under which circulars are made available on our WWW site).

Read IAUC 8985 SEARCH Read IAUC 8987

View IAUC 8986 in .dvi, .ps or .PDF format.
IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 8986
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 S2 = C/2001 D1 = C/2004 X7 (SOHO)
     Further to IAUC 8985, an additional near-sun presumed comet
has been found by R. Kracht on SOHO website images (discovery
observation tabulated below).  C/2008 S2 has been identified by
Kracht as apparently identical with C/2001 D1 (cf. IAUC 7936) and
C/2004 X7 (cf. IAUC 8466), a linkage that has been verified by B. G.
Marsden (see MPEC 2008-S81 and 2008-S82).  K. Battams writes that
C/2008 S2 was tiny and stellar in appearance (mag 7.5-8.0) and
appeared even fainter on the far side of the sun.  In remeasuring
the positions of C/2001 D1, Battams notes that it was then very
faint and tiny (mag about 8), and was slightly brighter when
visible on the far side of the sun.

 Comet       2008 UT       R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2008 S2   Sept. 17.814  11 50.0  + 1 36   C2     RK   2008-S81


COMET C/2008 S3 (BOATTINI)
     A. Boattini reports his discovery of a comet on CCD images
obtained with the 1.5-m reflector at Mt. Lemmon (discovery
observation tabulated below), the comet having strong condensation
with a coma about 10" wide but elongated about 15" at p.a.
approximately 115 deg.  Following posting on the Minor Planet
Center's 'NEOCP' webpage, D. T. Durig (Sewanee, TN, U.S.A., 0.30-m
f/2.5 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector, Sept. 30.4 UT) reports a tail
about 10" long in p.a. 90 deg.  E. Guido (Castellammare di Stabia,
Italy) writes that G. Sostero, P. Camilleri, and he co-added fifty
60-s unfiltered exposures that were obtained remotely with a 0.25-m
f/3.4 reflector near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A., on Sept. 30.4, showing a
coma of diameter about 8" with a central condensation and slight
elongated toward the northwest.  J. Young (Table Mountain 0.61-m
f/16 Cassegrain reflector, Sept. 30.5) finds a bright, diffuse coma
of diameter 6" with a very short tail about 16" long in p.a. 140-
160 deg, curving to the east.

     2008 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Sept.29.49105    4 42 49.71   +18 29 48.3   18.4

The available astrometry, the very uncertain parabolic orbital
elements (T = 2011 Apr. 4.172 TT, q = 3.12838 AU, Peri. = 95.199
deg, Node = 56.737 deg, i = 157.926 deg, equinox 2000.0), and an
ephemeris appear on MPEC 2008-S96.

                      (C) Copyright 2008 CBAT
2008 September 30              (8986)            Daniel W. E. Green

Read IAUC 8985 SEARCH Read IAUC 8987

View IAUC 8986 in .dvi, .ps or .PDF format.

Our Web policy. Index to the CBAT/MPC/ICQ pages.

Valid HTML 4.01!