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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1173      1997 Mar 01 15.03UT
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/1997 D1 (MUELLER)
Jean Mueller reports her discovery of a comet on a plate taken by
K. M. Rykoski and J. D. Mendenhall with the 1.2-m Oschin Schmidt
telescope in the course of the second Palomar Sky Survey.  The
comet is slightly diffuse with some central condensation; no tail
is visible.  The following positions from beginnings and ends of
trails were reduced by B. G. Marsden, following measurement by
J.Mueller:
     1997 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.        m1
     Feb. 17.46667   12 48 21.29   +46 23 44.1   16
          17.50833   12 48 15.70   +46 24 34.6
          19.51736   12 43 12.93   +47 08 50.0
          19.53472   12 43 10.81   +47 09 07.3
IAUC 6562 (extract)

Parabolic orbital elements from 10 observations Feb. 17-20 (mean of
Feb. 17 trail ends on IAUC 6562, beginning of Feb. 19 trail):
     T = 1997 Oct.  9.527 TT          Peri. = 179.982
                                      Node  = 277.822   2000.0
     q = 2.37528 AU                   Incl. = 142.148

1997 TT     R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r    Elong. Phase m1
Feb. 26    12 24.74    +49 24.7    2.637    3.396  133.5  12.2 14.9
Mar.  3    12 08.22    +50 58.4    2.601    3.360  133.4  12.4 14.8
      8    11 49.87    +52 18.1    2.576    3.324  132.1  12.8 14.8
     13    11 30.08    +53 20.2    2.564    3.289  129.6  13.5 14.7
     18    11 09.38    +54 02.1    2.564    3.253  126.3  14.3 14.7
     23    10 48.45    +54 22.8    2.575    3.219  122.2  15.2 14.6
     28    10 27.99    +54 22.6    2.596    3.184  117.6  16.1 14.6
Apr.  2    10 08.63    +54 03.3    2.627    3.150  112.6  17.0 14.6
      7     9 50.83    +53 27.6    2.667    3.116  107.4  17.9 14.6
     12     9 34.90    +52 38.8    2.713    3.083  102.1  18.5 14.6
     17     9 20.94    +51 40.2    2.765    3.050   96.7  19.1 14.6
     22     9 08.93    +50 34.8    2.821    3.017   91.3  19.5 14.5
IAUC 6563 (extract)

HT CAS (=Q1997/017)
Gary Poyner, Birmingham, England reports an outburst of this UG
star which is on the recurrent objects list of the UK
Nova/Supernova Patrol. Observations below are from his report
plus a NewsFlash issued by AAVSO:

1997 Feb 28.019UT, [15.0  (John Bortle, USA)
         28.865UT,  13.4  (Gary Poyner, Birmingham, 0.40-m refl.)
     Mar  1.017UT,  13.1  (Bortle)
          1.054UT,  13.14V(R.Zissell, USA)
          1.061UT,  13.4  (Bortle)

Janet Mattei comments that the last outburst recorded on the
AAVSO database was for 1995 November.

Guy M Hurst