Circular No. 3488 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 STEPHAN-OTERMA (1980g) H.-E. Schuster, European Southern Observatory, reports that he has recovered this comet as follows: 1980 UT R. A. (1950) Decl. m1 June 13.34583 1 27.57 - 8 24.8 18 19.36979 1 37.38 - 7 43.4 18 These positions are in good agreement with the following hitherto unpublished predicted elements, by D. K. Yeomans, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, based on a total of 113 observations at the 1867 and 1942-43 perihelion passages, with allowance for perturbations by Mercury-Pluto. For the purpose of the ephemeris computation the correction Delta-T = -0.07 day has been applied. T = 1980 Dec. 5.2244 ET Epoch = 1980 Dec. 7.0 ET Peri. = 358.1619 e = 0.859984 Node = 78.5122 1950.0 a = 11.244112 AU Incl. = 17.9810 n = 0.0261406 q = 1.574361 AU P = 37.704 years 1980 ET R. A. (1950) Decl. Delta r m2 June 30 1 55.02 - 6 33.2 2.538 2.467 18.9 July 10 2 11.90 - 5 31.2 20 2 29.04 - 4 33.6 2.173 2.300 18.3 30 2 46.41 - 3 40.4 Aug. 9 3 03.94 - 2 51.3 1.827 2.140 17.6 19 3 21.55 - 2 05.9 29 3 39.11 - 1 22.8 1.509 1.989 16.9 Sept. 8 3 56.46 - 0 39.8 18 4 13.37 + 0 06.4 1.227 1.853 16.1 28 4 29.59 + 1 00.9 Oct. 8 4 44.76 + 2 10.4 0.985 1.736 15.4 18 4 58.46 + 3 44.0 28 5 10.28 + 5 52.8 0.790 1.647 14.7 Nov. 7 5 19.73 + 8 48.1 17 5 26.42 +12 38.7 0.653 1.591 14.1 27 5 30.33 +17 24.3 Dec. 7 5 31.77 +22 48.9 0.594 1.575 13.8 The nuclear magnitude is from m2 = 13.0 + 5 log Delta + 10 log r. The comet should attain total magnitude m1 = 9 in December. 1980 June 23 (3488) Brian G. Marsden
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