------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1080 1996 May 19 11.56UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1996 JA1 Further to the announcement on E1079 Taichi Kato, Japan e-mails the following astrometric results: UT X Y mag R.A. (2000) Decl. N Gr ---------------------------------------------------------- 960518.54547 15.10 64.73 14.66 150859.99 +160947.6 3 960518.54584 22.33 65.65 14.14 150859.02 +160946.4 4 C 960518.54659 37.16 66.86 13.90 150856.91 +160943.9 4 A 960518.54696 45.33 67.57 14.00 150855.81 +160941.9 4 B 960518.54733 53.11 68.17 13.92 150854.79 +160941.1 3 A 960518.54770 60.20 69.40 13.94 150853.75 +160939.2 4 A 960518.54807 68.80 69.19 13.99 150852.68 +160939.4 4 A 960518.54844 75.86 70.69 14.21 150851.69 +160936.7 4 B 960518.54881 83.78 70.89 14.62 150850.57 +160935.8 3 960518.54918 90.37 71.46 14.16 150849.57 +160934.2 3 960518.54955 98.06 72.55 13.79 150848.51 +160932.9 4 B 960518.54992 105.64 73.16 13.82 150847.47 +160932.4 4 A 960518.55029 112.69 73.90 13.63 150846.44 +160929.9 4 A 960518.55066 119.87 74.38 13.67 150845.37 +160928.7 4 C 960518.55103 127.84 75.46 13.64 150844.37 +160927.1 4 A 960518.55140 135.33 75.95 13.60 150843.36 +160925.7 4 B 960518.55177 143.00 76.66 13.62 150842.27 +160924.8 4 A 960518.55214 150.20 77.55 13.71 150841.28 +160923.2 4 A 960518.55251 158.82 78.01 13.67 150840.19 +160921.9 4 B 960518.55288 166.93 78.73 13.72 150839.13 +160921.0 4 A 960518.55325 174.30 79.57 13.74 150838.13 +160919.5 4 A 960518.55362 182.86 80.04 13.68 150837.04 +160918.6 4 A UT : mid-exposure mag : instrumental, not calibrated (fainter mags are due to clouds) N : number of GSC stars used in reduction Gr : mean residual A (<0".5), B (0".5-1".0), C (>1".0) location: E 135o 57' 21" N 34o 28' 22" h 380m Brian Marsden reports on IAUC 6402: MPECs give word of the discovery, by T. Spahr at the University of Arizona on May 14.4 UT, of a bright asteroidal object rapidly approaching the earth. The extensive follow-up observations (published also on MPEC 1996-K03 and -K04) show that the object (a = 2.53 AU, e = 0.70, i = 22 deg) will pass only 0.00303 AU from the centre of the earth on May 19.690 UT. With absolute visual magnitude H = 21.0, 1996 JA1 is probably the largest such object ever observed to approach the earth so closely. The object should brighten to about V = 11, and it will be necessary for observers to allow for parallax in their ephemerides; a facility for computing topocentric ephemerides at UT intervals as short as 10 min is available in the WWW at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/NEO/1996JA1.html. SUPERNOVA 1996Z IN NGC 2935 Wayne Johnson, Anza, CA, reports his discovery of a supernova (mag about 16) on a CCD image taken on May 16.17 UT, SN 1996Z located about 1' south of the centre of NGC 2935 (R.A. = 9h36m.7, Decl. = -21o08', equinox 2000). IAUC 6401 and via e-mail from John Sanford Guy M Hurst