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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1060      1996 Mar 17 12.36UT
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
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COMET 1996 E1
E. F. Helin and K. J. Lawrence, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, on
behalf of the Near-Earth-Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) Team (E. Helin,
S. Pravdo, S. Groom, C. Clark, R. Bambery, S. Levin, J. Lorre, S.
Shaklan, and K. Lawrence), report the discovery of a comet on
images obtained with the 1-m f/2.2 GEODSS telescope at Haleakala by
the on-site team (R. Byrd, A. Esquibel, C. Cotton, and D. Bascon).
The comet is diffuse with strong condensation and a tail 10"-15"
long.  Available CCD observations:

     1996 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.        m1    Observer
     Mar. 15.25450    9 01 13.54   +18 58 39.3   16.2   Helin
          15.29746    9 01 06.28   +19 00 17.2   16.3     "
          16.16319    8 58 42.63   +19 32 55.1   16.0   Rogers
          16.21910    8 58 33.36   +19 35 01.3   16.1     "

E. F. Helin and K. J. Lawrence (Haleakala-NEAT/GEODSS).
IAUC 6341 (extract)

COMET C/1996 B2 HYAKUTAKE
Further selected observations:
                  m1        dia
1996 Mar 14.13UT  4.4       14'  (Werner Hasubick, Germany 10x50B)
1996 Mar 16.28UT  2.6       54'  (John Bortle, USA naked eye)
1996 Mar 16.70UT  3.0       30'  (Paul Camilleri, Australia,
                                  20x80B)
Tail 7 degrees long in PA 280, the last 4 degrees extremely faint.

Richard M. West, European Southern Observatory (ESO), writes:
"Two exposures (26 and 60 min; Kodak 4415 film + GG385 filter),
obtained on Mar. 14.3 UT by G. Pizarro with the 1-m ESO Schmidt
telescope, show a further development of the tail system; it is
now morphologically similar to that seen in other major comets at
the present heliocentric distance and magnitude.  There are at
least ten straight streamers in the sector p.a. 263-310 deg, some
reaching to 75'.  The main ion tail at p.a. 285 deg has numerous
kinks (e.g., at 75' and 108' distance) and bifurcations; its
length exceeds 300' (field border).  There is a fainter, diffuse
and broad (supposedly dust) tail underlying the ion tail and also
longer than 300'; at this distance, its total width is more than
100'."

Guy M Hurst