Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
IAUC 8763: P/2006 U1
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Circular No. 8763
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)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)
COMET P/2006 U1 (LINEAR)
An apparently asteroidal object reported by the LINEAR survey
(discovery observation tabulated below), and posted on the 'NEO
Confirmation Page', has been found to show cometary appearance by
several observers from their CCD images. J. E. McGaha (Tucson, AZ,
0.36-m f/10 reflector) reports that his co-added 60-s images taken
on Oct. 20.3 UT show a stellar nuclear condensation with a narrow
tail 439" long in p.a. 291 deg. J. Young (Table Mountain, 0.61-m
f/16 reflector) notes that his images from Oct. 20.4 show an
extremely round, bright non-diffuse coma with a diameter of 5" and
a long, straight tail in p.a. 290 deg; the tail brightens 1' from
the head, then fades slowly, extending for 9' (it fans open to
about 1' slowly southward as it lengthens). Observing with M.
Hicks on Oct. 21.4, Young notes the object's appearance then to be
very stellar (like the previous night), with the tail of similar
appearance in p.a. 288 deg. G. Hug and D. Tibbets (Eskridge, KS,
0.7-m reflector) write that their images from Oct. 20.4 show a tail
about 10' long in p.a. about 290 deg. J. G. Ries (McDonald
Observatory, 0.76-m reflector) writes that her images from Oct.
20.5 show a 430"-long tail pointing to the north-northwest. E.
Reina (Masquefa, Spain, 0.25-m f/3.3 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector)
communicates that images taken on Oct. 21.1 show a very condensed
coma of size 17" with a 6' tail in p.a. 289 deg. D. T. Durig and
E. A. Pierce (Sewanee, TN, 0.30-m f/5 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector)
report a tail nearly 11'.5 long in p.a. 288 deg on forty stacked
30-s exposures from Oct. 21.1. E. J. Christensen (Mount Lemmon
1.5-m reflector) writes that his images from Oct. 21.4 show an
extremely condensed 10" coma and a straight, narrow 12' tail in p.a.
290 deg; the tail appears nearly disconnected from the head (the
main visible mass of the tail begins approximately 1' away from
the head). B. L. Stevens (Las Cruces, NM, 0.3-m Schmidt-Cassegrain
reflector) reports a tail at least 6' long in p.a. 290 deg in his
images from Oct. 21.5.
2006 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag.
Oct. 19.39577 7 27 37.60 +27 37 24.5 17.3
The available astrometry, the following preliminary orbital
elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2006-U42.
T = 2006 Aug. 28.280 TT Peri. = 63.881
e = 0.80714 Node = 240.500 2000.0
q = 0.51236 AU Incl. = 8.346
a = 2.65657 AU n = 0.227626 P = 4.33 years
(C) Copyright 2006 CBAT
2006 October 21 (8763) Daniel W. E. Green
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