------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 3162 2016 Apr 22 12.39UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074 INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK Backup: gmh@wdcc1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk WORLD WIDE WEB http://www.theastronomer.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- V5850 Sgr = NOVA Sgr 2015 No. 4 = PNV J18225925-1914148 As announced on TA E-Circular 3120, S. Fujikawa (Japan) found a variable star (mag 11.8) on a 60-s CCD frame taken on 2015 Oct. 31.386 UT using a 120-mm-f.l. camera lens; the position of the variable was given as: RA 18h22m59s.33, DEC -19o14'06".8 (2000). Nakano adds that M. Yamamoto (Okazaki, Aichi-ken, Japan) reported his independent discovery of this object at mag 11.0 on three CCD frames taken on 2015 Oct. 31.392 using a 135-mm-f.l. f/3.5 lens, providing position end figures 59s.10, 15" (uncertainty +/- 5"). Spectroscopy by M. Fujii (Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan) on Nov. 2.417 and 3.389 with a 0.4-m telescope and by U. Munari on Nov. 3.72 with the Asiago 1.22-m telescope showed strong emission lines of hydrogen Balmer, He I, and N II, suggesting a ``He/N"-type nova. E. Kazarovets and N. Samus note that the permanent GCVS designation V5850 Sgr has been assigned to this variable. Issued on IAUC 9281 (2016 Apr 7) COMET 252P/LINEAR M. Knight, University of Maryland; and D. Schleicher, Lowell Observatory, report on imaging of comet 252P/LINEAR obtained from 2016 Apr. 2-7 using the Lowell Observatory's 4.3-m Discovery Channel telescope, the Hall 1.1-m telescope, and the 0.8-m telescope. Comet 252P exhibited distinctly different coma morphology between dust and gas species. Enhanced images reveal a short sunward dust feature and the dust tail. Enhanced CN and C_3 images exhibited a tilted spiral that is seen partially edge on approximately in the north- south direction. Enhanced OH images are also brightest along this direction but with considerably more material in the tailward hemisphere, potentially implying icy grains subject to radiation pressure. The CN coma morphology varied smoothly during a night and repeated approximately every 22 hr, implying a period of about 22 hr or a sub-multiple thereof. There is also a repetition of features after about 95.5 hr, implying that the actual period is 7.35 +/- 0.05 hr. Issued on CBET 4271 (2016 Apr 12) Guy M Hurst