THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 204 1988 Oct 02 09.04UT.
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FAST MOVING ASTEROID
Rob McNaught, Australia, e-mails:(received Oct 1 19.53UT)
"Malcolm Hartley of the UKST has found a mag 16.5 FMO on a plate
taken for Saturn "Trojans". Due to the ambiguity in direction, and
the tracked plate, the possible motions are not simply opposite.
Mid trail is 1988 Sep 29.43801 RA 22 08 02.9 Dec -12 23 15
Motion 1.226 deg/day in PA 202.7
or 1.172 " " 019.2
A follow up plate on the Saturn "Trojans" was taken last night, so
the southern motion is covered. This plate will be developed today.
However coverage of the northern direction would be valuable, as
this will carry it off the UKST plate.
Search ephemeris
UT RA (1950) Dec RA (1950) Dec
Oct 2.0 22 12.1 -09 33 22 03.1 -15 17
3.0 22 13.7 -08 26 22 01.1 -16 24
4.0 22 15.2 -07 20 21 59.2 -17 32 "
COSMOS 1900
We understand that this object has passed over the Earth with no
confirmed reports of debris landing. It is believed to have burned
out in the atmosphere over Western Africa. According to TASS the
nuclear reactor has been placed in a higher orbit.
Did anyone observe the satellite in its final passage over Europe?
YALE CATALOGUE
Paul Sutherland (MAG31707) e-mails:
"I wonder whether the following information might be of
interest to other computer users:
The Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars has recently been put in the
public domain, which means it is available for copying and
distributing freely. It is currently available from the Public
Domain Software Library in Britain (along with some other
interesting looking freebie programs). Unfortunately, few
things are really free. One does have to pay the copying and
handling fees charged by the organisation. Together with
postage, they calculate it would cost 24 pounds to put the
2 megabytes of information onto 4 disks for my CP/M machine.
However, we would be free to copy and distribute as many copies
of the catalogue ourselves as we wish. The only rule is that
no one must make a profit out of PD software. So if enough people
would like a copy of the catalogue, and we share the cost of our
master copy, it could work out quite cheap for each individual.
Michael Maunder and Alan Drummond have already expressed interest
to me in this software. Michael even has the facility to transfer
between different disk sizes and formats. Would anyone else with
an interest or comments please like to E-mail me?
The Yale Catalogue holds data about more than 9000 bright stars
in simple ASCII format. A simple Basic database program is provided
to access the program. This program would not suit everyone's
machine, but would hopefully be fairly easy to adapt".
Editor: Could interested readers reply direct to Paul with a copy
to the Editor.
1988 NF
Further to the note on E-203, N.James (MAG90713) e-mails:
Ephemeris for 1988NF
Offsets from: V And R.A. = 00h 47m.4, Dec. +35 23'
E 1988 July 18.00ET. w 94.12 )
e 0.36007 w1 254.48 ) 1950.0
a 2.18771A.U. i 22.13 )
Date E.T. R.A. (1950) Dec. R r Elong star->ast
h m o ' (AU) (AU) o ' P.A.
1988 Nov 12.00 0 33.25 +38 42.6 0.648 1.545 140.4 259 320
1988 Nov 13.00 0 34.64 +38 6.7 0.652 1.549 140.3 223 317
1988 Nov 14.00 0 36.04 +37 31.1 0.657 1.552 140.2 186 314
1988 Nov 15.00 0 37.47 +36 55.7 0.662 1.556 140.0 151 308
1988 Nov 16.00 0 38.91 +36 20.6 0.667 1.559 139.8 118 299
1988 Nov 17.00 0 40.36 +35 45.8 0.673 1.563 139.5 89 285
1988 Nov 18.00 0 41.83 +35 11.3 0.678 1.566 139.3 69 260
1988 Nov 19.00 0 43.31 +34 37.2 0.684 1.570 139.0 68 228
1988 Nov 20.00 0 44.81 +34 3.4 0.690 1.574 138.6 86 202
1988 Nov 21.00 0 46.32 +33 30.1 0.696 1.577 138.3 114 187
1988 Nov 22.00 0 47.85 +32 57.2 0.703 1.581 137.9 146 178
1988 Nov 23.00 0 49.39 +32 24.8 0.710 1.585 137.5 180 172
1988 Nov 24.00 0 50.93 +31 52.8 0.716 1.588 137.0 215 168
1988 Nov 25.00 0 52.49 +31 21.4 0.723 1.592 136.6 250 165
1988 Nov 26.00 0 54.06 +30 50.4 0.731 1.596 136.1 286 163
1988 Nov 27.00 0 55.64 +30 20.0 0.738 1.600 135.6 321 161
1988 Nov 28.00 0 57.23 +29 50.1 0.746 1.603 135.1 356 159
1988 Nov 29.00 0 58.82 +29 20.8 0.753 1.607 134.6 392 158
1988 Nov 30.00 1 0.43 +28 52.0 0.761 1.611 134.0 427 156
1988 Dec 1.00 1 2.05 +28 23.8 0.770 1.615 133.5 461 155
Rob McNaught has e-mailed similar results.
Hans Bengtsson also reports the asteroid will pass near Y Cas
(RA 00h00m47s DEC +55 24.1',1950)
on Oct 11 and near SS Cas
(RA 00h07m00s DEC +51 17.3',1950)
on Oct 21.
Can anyone carry out similar calculations to the above as it may
then be possible to undertake a complete run using the three
sequences?
TA INDEX
J.Danielsson is now handing over the running of the Swedish e-mail
link to A.Linquist. The mailbox MAG96041 is no longer in use and
the new box number for Mr.Linquist will be announced shortly. We
welcome this continued valuable exchange between British and Swedish astronomers.
Guy M Hurst