Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
IAUC 3459: P/HALLEY; SS 433; 2A 0311-227
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 3460
Circular No. 3459
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
PERIODIC COMET HALLEY
F. L. Whipple, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,
communicates: "From 60 measures of 'halo' diameters on Lowell
Observatory plates of P/Halley during 1910 Jan. 8-June 25, I find a
single rotation solution of 0d.4297 or 10h19m (sidereal), fitting all
45 normal places with sigma = +/-0d.088. Eight diameters by J. Herschel
in 1835-36 give the same period. Probably the rotation and orbital
poles are close together with motion in the same sense as indicated
by the nongravitational motions derived by Kiang and Yeomans. For
mission planning in the 1985-86 apparition, early observations
should provide good predictions of nucleus active-area orientation."
SS 433
G. H. Newsom and G. W. Collins, II, Department of Astronomy,
Ohio State University, write: "We find the presence of a
statistically-significant short periodicity in the wavelengths of each of
the 'moving' emission lines in SS 433, superimposed on the 165-d
variation. If light-travel time is negligible in the system, periods
of both 6d.30 +/- 0d.01 and 6d.06 +/- 0d.01 appear. If we include
light-travel time in a large highly-inclined system (1100 AU radius;
i = 22o) as described by Collins, Newsom and Boyd (preprint), the
dominant period is 6d.55 +/- 0d.01. We note that the 6d.55 period is
half the 13d.0 period reported by Crampton et al. (IAUC 3388).
However, more observations are necessary to determine which period is
fundamental and which are probable 'aliases' resulting from
non-uniform data distribution."
2A 0311-227
J. B. Hutchings, A. P. Cowley and D. Crampton, Dominion Astrophysical
Observatory, report: "Single-trailed spectrograms of 20-min
duration were taken of this source with the 4-m reticon spectrograph
at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory. These reveal a
complex emission-line structure in which two peaks merge and
separate roughly every 12 min. The Balmer lines generally have a
stronger component moving from long to short wavelengths, while the
He II 468.6-nm components have more equal or reversed intensity
ratios. The phenomenon is presumably connected with the 6-min
oscillations in optical light noted by Williams et al. (1979, Nature 281,
48) and seems similar to the 71-s oscillation seen in DQ Her."
1980 March 13 (3459) Daniel W. E. Green
Read IAUC 3460
Our Web policy. Index to the CBAT/MPC/ICQ pages.
