------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1128 1996 Sep 22 15.35UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- TA 1996 AGM Due to the unexpected absence of the Editor last week on an away business trip, the AGM programmes could not be despatched until today. If anyone has not received them by Friday please e-mail if you need directions. The list of those who have paid will be at the door so there will be no problems regarding admission. If anyone has previously e-mailed a booking but not sent the form and remittance please post these today. We can still accept some late bookings but please e-mail the Editor to confirm the remittance has been posted in case it is delayed in transit. COMET P/1996 S1 (HOLT-OLMSTEAD) J. V. Scotti, University of Arizona, reports his recovery of comet P/1990 R2 (= 1990k = 1990 XVIII) with the Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak. The comet is close to the prediction on MPC 23482. 1996 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 Sept.19.20204 21 39 56.19 -29 50 18.2 20.2 20.23900 21 39 22.61 -29 42 39.2 20.4 IAUC 6475 (extract) X PERSEI Professional astronomers Sussex have been awarded time on the shuttle-based UV spectrometer ORFEUS, to observe X Per during the first 2 weeks of November this year (though this being a shuttle launch, the dates could slip a little). They request optical photometry of X Per over that period, as frequently as possible. The spectra will be very fast ultra-violet observations to try and correlate UV variations with the X-ray pulsations, so photometry is needed on timescales that can resolve the pulsar period (approx 835 secs.) into as many points as possible, e.g. lots of 20 sec. oservations. They hope to obtain IR photometry from Tenerife and Calar Alto in Spain, and observations from Japan and the US also. The goal of the photometric work will be to monitor X Per for short term flaring behaviour, and search for optical pulsations. At this stage precise dates and times have not been fixed but anyone interested should contact the Editor so we can supply further details when available. COMET P/1996 S2 (SHOEMAKER-HOLT 1) J. V. Scotti, University of Arizona, reports his recovery of comet P/1987 U1 (= 1987z = 1988 VII) with the Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak, as given below. The indicated correction to the prediction by S. Nakano on MPC 23484 (ephemeris on MPC 26770) is Delta(T) = -0.89 day. 1996 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 Sept.19.19091 22 51 57.47 - 2 30 23.8 20.7 20.19518 22 51 23.97 - 2 34 47.7 21.18698 22 50 51.25 - 2 39 07.6 21.21013 22 50 50.47 - 2 39 13.4 20.8 IAUC 6477 (extract) Guy M Hurst