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IAUC 6894: C/1998 J1

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                                                  Circular No. 6894
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/iau/cbat.html
Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)


COMET C/1998 J1 (SOHO)
     C. St. Cyr, Naval Research Laboratory, on behalf of the SOHO-LASCO
Consortium (cf. IAUC 6685), reports the discovery by S. Stezelberger of a
bright comet in the northwestern corner of the field of view of the C3
coronagraph, some 8 deg from the sun:

               1998 UT           R.A. (2000) Decl.
               May   3.779       2 10.2      +19 35

Preliminary measurements by Stezelberger and St. Cyr, reduced by G. V.
Williams and given on MPEC 1998-J13, show the comet, estimated by St. Cyr
at mag 0 and possibly brighter, continuing to move across the top of the
C3 field.  There is a fanshaped tail extending antisunward at least to
the edge of the field, and there may be a separate narrow tail extending
roughly along the direction of motion.  Computations by the undersigned
show that the observations are represented rather unequivocally by the
following parabolic orbital elements and suggest that the comet might
become observable from the ground, particularly later in the month at
solar elongations favoring the southern hemisphere.

     T = 1998 May   8.901 TT          Peri. = 107.577
                                      Node  = 348.442   2000.0
     q = 0.17454 AU                   Incl. =  55.085

1998 TT     R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r    Elong. Phase      m1
May   5     2 23.55    +21 24.8    1.190    0.234    7.7   35.4      0.1
      6     2 35.00    +22 50.6    1.165    0.211    7.5   38.6     -0.4
      7     2 47.69    +24 06.1    1.137    0.191    7.6   44.3     -0.9
      8     3 01.57    +25 04.1    1.107    0.178    8.1   52.9     -1.3
      9     3 16.29    +25 37.0    1.075    0.175    8.9   63.6     -1.4
     10     3 31.27    +25 40.0    1.042    0.180    9.9   74.8     -1.4
     11     3 45.90    +25 13.5    1.010    0.194   11.0   84.5     -1.1
     12     3 59.81    +24 22.3    0.980    0.215   12.3   91.9     -0.7
     13     4 12.86    +23 12.2    0.953    0.239   13.6   96.9     -0.3
     14     4 25.07    +21 48.3    0.930    0.266   15.0  100.0      0.1
     15     4 36.54    +20 14.3    0.910    0.294   16.6  101.6      0.5
     16     4 47.35    +18 33.2    0.892    0.323   18.2  102.2      0.8
     17     4 57.60    +16 47.0    0.878    0.352   19.9  101.9      1.2

                      (C) Copyright 1998 CBAT
1998 May 5                     (6894)              Brian G. Marsden

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