THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 90 1987 Nov 25 22.25UT. Telecom Gold 72:MAG60138 Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16, Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP, England. Telephone:(0256)471074.Int:+44256471074 Telex:265871(MONREF G) Quote"72:MAG60138 ATT G.HURST"in FIRST line. ------------------------------------------------------------------- SN IN M31 NOT CONFIRMED Denis Buczynski, Conder Brow Observatory, reports that his photo of the area of the object reported on E-89, taken on 1987 Nov 24.856UT shows no new object to mag 15.0 when compared with another exposure also with the 0.55-m refl. taken on 1987 Oct 28. S.Lubbock also e-mails that he detected no new object on Nov 24 when compared with the photo by M.Oates appearing on the back cover of this month's TA. Marsden advises that McCrosky also failed to record a new object to mag 15 on the night of Nov 24. COMET ICHIMURA (1987d1) Brian Marsden has telephoned through the following elements: T =1988 Jan 10.02ET Peri= 329.55) Node= 225.59) 1950.0 Incl= 41.00) q = 0.1986 AU Ephemeris by Hurst: 1987 ET RA (1950) DEC(1950) Earth Sun Elong m1 Nov 26 03h32.81m -28 32.6 0.327 1.224 130.0 7.4 Dec 1 02 34.4 -44 03.87 0.298 1.122 109.4 6.8 6 00 52.65 -56 56.42 0.305 1.016 86.6 6.4 11 22 39.14 -61 11.78 0.345 0.905 66.4 6.2 16 20 55.19 -58 21.11 0.407 0.790 50.1 6.0 The comet could reach mag 2 in early January but will be situated too close to the sun for observation. A daily ephemeris can be supplied on e-mail request. COMET FURUYAMA (1987f1) H.Kosai, Tokyo Astronomical Observatory, reports the photographic discovery of a comet by Sigeru Furuyama, Ibaraki, Japan: 1987 UT RA(1950) DEC (1950) m1 Observer Nov 22.41111 05h17.8m +25 22 8 Shoemaker (pre-discovery) 23.67361 05 11.8 +24 27 12 Furuyama (0.30-m f3.8refl) 25.167 05 04.9 +23 21 10.2 Levy IAUC 4499 Guy M Hurst