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IAUC 6564: C/1996 R3

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                                                  Circular No. 6564
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)
BMARSDEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or DGREEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/cbat.html
Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)


COMET C/1996 R3
     On 1996 Oct. 10 C.-I. Lagerkvist, Uppsala Observatory, reported his
discovery of a comet on exposures obtained with the 1-m Schmidt at the
European Southern Observatory a month earlier.  Nugatory recovery attempts
were made in October and November (limiting mag 20.5-21.0) on the
basis of orbit computations by the undersigned.  Nevertheless, additional
September detections of the comet were subsequently located on images
obtained in the course of the Spacewatch and NEAT programs.  Available
observations:

     1996 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.        m1    Observer
     Sept.12.28682   23 09 50.82   - 0 49 35.3   20.7   Scotti
          13.15139   23 09 34.78   - 0 54 59.2   19.5   Lagerkvist
          14.27361   23 09 13.81   - 1 02 03.7            "
          14.40286   23 09 11.71   - 1 03 09.7   19     Helin
          14.44208   23 09 10.97   - 1 03 14.7            "

J. Scotti (Kitt Peak).  0.9-m Spacewatch telescope.  Coma diameter about 17",
   tail 0'.55 long in p.a. 302 deg.
C.-I. Lagerkvist, S. Mottola and U. Carsenty (European Southern Obs.).
   Measurer M. Lundstrom.  Reduced by O. Hernius.  60-min and 30-min
   exposures.  Object diffuse, coma more extended than for P/1996 R2.
E. Helin (Haleakala-NEAT/GEODSS).  1-m Ritchey-Chretien + CCD.
   Measurers D. L. Rabinowitz and K. J. Lawrence.  Object faint and diffuse.

     The following parabolic orbital elements are from four of the above
observations.  It is quite possible that the comet is of short period.

     T = 1996 May  30.292 TT          Peri. =  99.606
                                      Node  = 196.029   2000.0
     q = 1.76959 AU                   Incl. =   5.011

1996 TT     R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r    Elong. Phase      m1
Aug.  5    23 17.73    + 2 22.2    1.069    1.965  141.2   18.9     19.6
     15    23 17.81    + 1 53.8    1.077    2.023  150.9   14.1     19.7
     25    23 15.78    + 1 05.1    1.104    2.086  161.1    9.0     19.9
Sept. 4    23 12.61    + 0 04.0    1.152    2.154  171.3    4.1     20.1
     14    23 09.32    - 1 00.4    1.222    2.226  174.6    2.4     20.4
     24    23 06.83    - 1 59.6    1.317    2.301  165.3    6.3     20.7
Oct.  4    23 05.80    - 2 47.2    1.434    2.380  155.2   10.2     21.0
     14    23 06.52    - 3 19.8    1.574    2.461  145.4   13.3     21.4
     24    23 09.09    - 3 36.3    1.733    2.544  136.0   15.8     21.7

                      (C) Copyright 1997 CBAT
1997 February 21               (6564)              Brian G. Marsden

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