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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1119      1996 Aug 26 17.00UT
Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise,  Basingstoke,
Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074
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 C/1996 Q1 (TABUR)
Herman Mikuz, Slovenia, e-mails a further observation of
1996 Aug 24.11UT using the 0.20-m f/2 Baker-Schmidt camera + V
filter + ST6 CCD when the V magnitude was recorded as 10.7. The
coma diameter was measured as 4.5' and DC=6.

Martin Mobberley communicates the following visbility prospects:

Comet Tabur is currently (Aug 24th) a difficult 10th mag morning
twilight comet, only 15 degrees above the south-east UK horizon
with the Sun 15 degrees down (0315 UT).
The Moon (full on Aug 28th) is also a problem from Aug 28th to
Sept 8th.
By September 9th the comet will be 25 degrees up in morning
twilight (Sun 15 degrees down), just to the West of Orion's Belt
and at mag 8.5. The comet will continue to climb rapidly in the
morning sky throughout September, the Lunar Eclipse of the 27th
(am) providing an extra observing window on the day before the
TA AGM.
The comet passes through the ecliptic, heading North, on
Sept 24/25, a few million miles outside the point where the Earth
will be on October 21st.
On October 4 we are at our closest to the comet at 0.381 A.U.
and, accordingly, its' motion then peaks at 680"/hour.
By the time the Moon is down to a crescent in the early October
dawn sky, i.e. by the 7th, the comet will be visible in both
morning and evening skies.
It will be 35 degrees above the NE morning horizon in a dark sky
at 0420 UT on the 12th (New Moon).
By this time the comet should be a fifth or sixth mag object at
a very favourable (for UK observers) 50 degrees North (along with
Comet Brewington).
The comet passes under the bowl of the Plough on Oct 9th/10th and
two degrees north of M51 on October 15th/16th (Moon is a waxing
crescent).
The comet should still be brighter than seventh mag up to
perihelion on November 1st.
>From late October to mid November Comet Tabur will be better as an
evening object, but by late November the comet once more favours
the morning sky and will be an eighth or ninth mag object in
Serpens Caput.

V635 CAS
Gary Poyner, Birmingham, reports an outburst of V635 Cas:
1996 Aug 17.027, 14.7; 18.991, 14.3; 21.979, 14.3.
This appears to coincide with an X-ray outburst reported by
M.Scott et.al. of the Universities Space Research Association
on IAUC 6450.

Guy M Hurst