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IAUC 6676: C/1997 K1; 104P; GRB 970508

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                                                  Circular No. 6676
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/1997 K1 (SOHO)
     C. St. Cyr, Naval Research Laboratory, reports, for the SOHO-LASCO
Consortium (see IAUC 6669), his discovery of a comet in images
obtained with the C3 coronagraph aboard the SOHO mission, as the comet
moved in toward the sun from 14.6 to 6.4 solar radii over a 23-hr
interval, after which a 5-hr span of images was obtained with the C2
coronagraph to a distance of 4.0 radii.  The following approximate
discovery position is extracted from the more complete set of sohocentric
J2000.0 positions on MPEC 1997-L02, these having been reduced by G. V.
Williams from measurements by St. Cyr and D. A. Biesecker of apparent
solar distance and position angle:

                1997 UT           R.A. (2000) Decl.
                May  31.221       4 36.3      +18 08

Orbital computations (also on MPEC 1997-L02) by the undersigned confirm
St. Cyr's suggestion that this is another Kreutz sungrazer, with T =
1997 June 1.60 UT (despite some slight inconsistency again between the C3
and C2 data: see IAUC 6650).


COMET 104P/KOWAL 2
     A 900-s co-added exposure by C. W. Hergenrother with the 1.2-m
reflector at the Whipple Observatory in mid-May shows a coma 8" across
and no tail.  Red magnitudes: May 14.48 UT, 19.0; 15.42, 19.2.


GRB 970508
     M. R. Metzger and J. G. Cohen, California Institute of Technology
(CIT); F. H. Chaffee, W. M. Keck Observatory; and R. D. Blandford, CIT,
report: "Images of Bond's optical variable (IAUC 6654, 6655), associated
with GRB 970508 (IAUC 6649), were obtained with the Keck II 10-m
telescope (+ LRIS) on June 5.26 UT.  The two 5-min R-band exposures
give a mean magnitude for the variable of R = 23.4 +/- 0.2, tied to the
photometric system reported on IAUC 6658.  A 30-min spectrum was also
obtained (on June 5.29); this reveals an emission line at 684.0 nm that
we identify with [O II] 372.8-nm emission at z = 0.835 +/- 0.001.  This
is the same redshift as the strong metal-line absorption system (IAUC
6655), and the spectrum is consistent with having a constant line flux
from May 11, but with a considerably weaker continuum.  The line flux
therefore may be due to nebular emission from a coincident host galaxy,
with relatively faint continuum (IAUC 6674)."

                      (C) Copyright 1997 CBAT
1997 June 6                    (6676)              Brian G. Marsden

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