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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 949       1995 Apr 17 18.10UT
Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise,  Basingstoke,
Hants, RG22 4PP,England. Telephone/FAX(0256)471074 Int:+44256471074
INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK             GMH at AST.STAR.RL.AC.UK
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POSSIBLE SATELLITES OF SATURN
M. K. Gordon, C. D. Murray and K. Beurle, Queen Mary and Westfield
College, University of London, report on the possible existence of
additional satellites of Saturn in the Voyager 2 data.
They also quote S. P. Synnott as noting that the seven satellite
candidates discussed by him on IAUC 3651, 3656, and 3660 should be
reduced to three (S/1981 S 7, 10, and 11), together with a very
faint fourth one, designated S/1981 S 14, observed on 1981 Aug.
23.9955 UT around 2.0 x 10^5 km from Saturn.  Summarized below are
the 1981 Aug. UT dates of the new images (not the 'earth received'
times), approximate planet-centered distances (in units of 10^5 km)
and longitudes (in deg), assuming circular orbits in the equatorial
plane (in J2000.0 coordinates fixed on 1981 Aug. 21.2), and
estimated apparent visual geocentric opposition magnitudes:  S/1981
S 15, 21.2439, 1.74, 222, 18; S/1981 S 16, 21.2789, 2.20, 290, 18;
S/1981 S 17, 22.1928, 2.31, 282, 18; S/1981 S 18, 23.9050, 1.85,
206, 24; S/1981 S 19, 23.9866, 1.86, 109, 22.  Pointing-error
corrections in the Voyager database for S/1981 S 18 and 19 could
not be corrected; consequently, the error bars for these two
features are on the order of two to three thousand km.  The orbital
radii above are particularly sensitive to the assumption that the
possible satellites are on orbits in the equatorial plane.  Orbits
with moderate inclinations (1-1.5 deg) could produce changes of
several thousands of kilometers in the radial positions.  Based on
dynamical considerations, S/1981 S 16 and 18 may be separate
observations of a single small satellite coorbital with Mimas
(Saturn I) with an orbital inclination comparable to that of Mimas.
IAUC 6162

AL COM
Taichi Kato and Daisaku Nogami, Ouda Team, Japan e-mail:
We have been observing AL Com since Apr. 7 at Ouda Station, Kyoto
University. The hump-like features reported independently by
J. Patterson and J. A. DeYoung (IAUC 6157) have decayed as we
reported earlier.
The hump features now seem to show a more usual superhump-like
profile, although the amplitude is still very small (~0.05 mag).
A period analysis using phase dispersion minimization (PDM) has
yielded a period of 0.05666 +/- 0.00002 day from the whole data set
until Apr. 12, after removing a general trend of decline.
This value almost perfectly coincides with the orbital period of
WZ Sge (0.056688 day).  The superhump period of WZ Sge was reported
to be 0.05714 day.

Guy M Hurst