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IAUC 7194: C/1999 F2

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                                                  Circular No. 7194
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  ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)


COMET C/1999 F2
     Julianne Dalcanton, University of Washington; S. Kent, Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory; and S. Okamura, University of
Tokyo, on behalf of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), report the
discovery by Dalcanton of a comet on several SDSS images taken on
Mar. 20 through different filters; an r'-band filter shows a tail
about 2' long and a sharp nucleus inside a coma of diameter about
20".  Upon receipt at the Central Bureau yesterday of the
astrometry, spanning only 72 s of time, G. V. Williams found a
possible link with a single-night apparently asteroidal LINEAR
object in archival data for Mar. 24; this permitted Williams to
find further apparently asteroidal LINEAR observations, first on
Feb. 23, then on May 12, and finally on 1998 June 18.  At this
point, the object was placed on the NEO Confirmation Page in
expectation that additional observations would confirm the cometary
nature.  In response, confirming CCD observations showing cometary
appearance were received from M. Tichy and Z. Moravec at Klet on
June 7.9 UT (coma diameter > 15", tail > 50" in p.a. 230 deg) and
from R. A. Koff at Thornton, CO, on June 8.2 (15" coma, 35" tail in
p.a. 195 deg).  Dalcanton subsequently forwarded single-night
LONEOS observations obtained on Mar. 28 and found by G. Magnier.
The complete set of astrometry is given on MPEC 1999-L10.

     1998/9 UT           R.A. (2000) Decl.        m1    Observer
     June 18.15605   12 06 51.99   -16 53 30.5   17.7   LINEAR
     Mar. 20.44702   15 33 02.60   + 0 13 29.7   15.5   SDSS

     The following orbital elements by Williams are from 27
observations, 1998 June 18-1999 June 8 (mean residual 1".0):

                    Epoch = 1998 Aug. 15.0 TT
     T = 1998 Aug. 23.9824 TT         Peri. = 352.3927
     e = 0.998555                     Node  = 210.2962  2000.0
     q = 4.718760 AU                  Incl. =  56.4215

1999 TT     R. A. (2000) Decl.   Delta     r    Elong. Phase    m1
June  1    15 07.64   +11 24.0   4.386   5.208  140.5    7.1   15.4
     11    15 04.25   +12 10.0   4.503   5.242  132.4    8.2   15.5
     21    15 01.74   +12 41.9   4.639   5.275  124.0    9.2   15.6
July  1    15 00.26   +13 00.9   4.791   5.310  115.6    9.9   15.7
     11    14 59.87   +13 08.8   4.955   5.346  107.3   10.5   15.8

                      (C) Copyright 1999 CBAT
1999 June 8                    (7194)            Daniel W. E. Green

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