Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams -- Image credits

IAUC 3441: 1947 XC = 1979 XA; ECLIPSE OF SATURN VI (TITAN)

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 3440 SEARCH Read IAUC 3442
IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 3441
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Postal Address: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
TWX 710-320-6842 ASTROGRAM CAM     Telephone 617-864-5758


1947 XC = 1979 XA
     Further precise positions have been reported as follows:

     1979/80 UT          R. A. (1950) Decl.        Observer
     Dec. 18.00733     2 10 22.45   +12 46 06.0    McCrosky
          20.16458     1 57 49.65   +11 58 13.2    Bowell
     Jan.  5.12292     0 10 01.92   + 4 01 07.1    Giclas

R. E. McCrosky (Harvard Observatory).  Correction to IAUC 3436.
E. Bowell and H. L. Giclas (Lowell Observatory, Anderson Mesa Station).
   0.3-m photographic telescope.  Measurer: M. L. Kantz.

     It can now be confirmed that the object made ten revolutions
between 1947 and 1979 (cf. IAUC 3432).  The following orbital elements,
by the undersigned, are from an accurate linkage of the two
apparitions, full perturbations being taken into account.

       T = 1980 Feb. 17.4804 ET   Epoch = 1980 Feb. 11.0 ET
   Peri. =  95.6982                   e =   0.712126
   Node  =  76.4652   1950.0          a =   2.174565 AU
   Incl. =   2.5160                   n =   0.3073587
       q =   0.626001 AU              P =   3.207 years

     1980 ET     R. A. (1950) Decl.     Delta     r      B
     Jan.  7    23 55.53    + 2 50.3
          12    23 14.90    - 0 33.4    0.215   0.892   15.6
          17    22 32.09    - 4 11.0
          22    21 49.13    - 7 46.2    0.232   0.784   16.4


ECLIPSE OF SATURN VI (TITAN)
     Z. Kopal, University of Manchester, communicates the following
note by E. Budding and A. S. Asaad: "The disappearance phase of the
Titan eclipse on 1979 Dec. 20.1 UT was observed using the 1.9-m
reflector at the Kottamia station of the Helwan Observatory.  The sky
conditions were relatively good, although clouds had dispersed only
shortly before the eclipse.  This was observed to start at 2h12m25s
UT, and Titan had dropped in brightness by 7.1 mag by 2h38m05s
(times to the nearest 5s), when it was only 3 percent above the
background scattered light from Saturn.  The effective wavelength
of observation was 660 nm with 40-nm-halfwidth filter."


1980 January 11                (3441)              Brian G. Marsden

Read IAUC 3440 SEARCH Read IAUC 3442

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

Valid HTML 4.01!