------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1046 1996 Feb 11 11.16UT 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 WORLD WIDE WEB http://www.demon.co.uk/astronomer ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMET C/1996 B2 (HYAKUTAKE) K.Takamizawa of Saku, Japan reports pre-discovery images of this comet obtained with a 0.10-m f/4.0 patrol camera on 1996 Jan 1 at approximately total magnitude 13. The images, measured by A.Sugie, have enabled a revised set of orbital elements to be derived by Brian Marsden. He comments that assuming the measurements of the pre-discovery images can be relied on to arcsecond accuracy then the revised ephemeris at the time of close approach to the earth is probably accurate to within a few tenths of a degree. T 1996 May 1.4109 TT w 130.17807 ) e 1.00000000 O 188.06079 ) 2000.0 q 0.2301960 A.U. i 124.88607 ) Source: MPEC 1996-C06 Positions are geocentric Ephemeris by G.Hurst using EPH.EXE by N.James: m = 5.5 + 5.0 log R + 10.0 log r Date R.A. (2000) Dec. R r Elong Mag. Motion h m o ' (AU) (AU) o "/hr P.A. 1996 Feb 11.00 14 39.92 -24 49.6 1.458 1.847 96.2 9.0 25 79 12.00 14 40.64 -24 47.6 1.424 1.831 97.1 8.9 25 78 13.00 14 41.35 -24 45.3 1.391 1.814 98.0 8.8 25 76 14.00 14 42.06 -24 42.6 1.357 1.797 98.8 8.7 25 74 15.00 14 42.75 -24 39.6 1.324 1.780 99.7 8.6 25 71 16.00 14 43.43 -24 36.2 1.290 1.763 100.6 8.5 25 69 17.00 14 44.10 -24 32.4 1.256 1.746 101.4 8.4 25 66 18.00 14 44.77 -24 28.1 1.223 1.728 102.3 8.3 25 63 19.00 14 45.41 -24 23.4 1.189 1.711 103.2 8.2 25 60 20.00 14 46.05 -24 18.1 1.155 1.694 104.1 8.1 26 57 21.00 14 46.67 -24 12.3 1.122 1.676 105.0 8.0 26 54 22.00 14 47.28 -24 5.8 1.088 1.659 105.9 7.9 27 51 23.00 14 47.88 -23 58.7 1.054 1.641 106.8 7.8 27 47 24.00 14 48.46 -23 50.8 1.021 1.624 107.7 7.7 28 44 25.00 14 49.03 -23 42.2 0.987 1.606 108.6 7.5 30 40 26.00 14 49.58 -23 32.6 0.954 1.588 109.6 7.4 31 37 27.00 14 50.11 -23 22.1 0.920 1.570 110.5 7.3 33 33 28.00 14 50.63 -23 10.5 0.886 1.552 111.5 7.1 35 30 29.00 14 51.13 -22 57.6 0.853 1.534 112.4 7.0 38 27 COMET C/1995 O1 (HALE-BOPP) Terry Lovejoy, Jimboomba, Queensland, Australia reports that he observed Comet Hale-Bopp visually on 1996 Feb 2.75UT at m1=8.8 using a 0.25-m reflector. The coma diameter was 4' and a tail 8 arc minutes long was noted. H. U. Kaufl, European Southern Observatory; and H. Bohnhardt, Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Munich, report that G. van der Steene observed this comet with the 3.5-m New Technology Telescope on Feb. 9.35 UT, just before the onset of astronomical twilight. A preliminary analysis shows that isophotes of the coma are detectable out to a radius of 2'.5 from the nucleus and that the fan-shaped coma is strongly elongated to the north. Using R filters, they find the following photometric magnitudes for the inner coma (centred on the nucleus): 11"x14", 8.9; 28"x28", 7.9; 39"x39", 7.6. IAUC 6308 Guy M Hurst