------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1192 1997 May 10 08.15UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMET C/1997 H2 (SOHO) C. St. Cyr, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, reports that Shane Stezelberger, SOHO-LASCO Operations, has discovered a comet on images obtained with coronagraphs aboard the SOHO mission, which is located near the Lagrangean point 0.01 AU sunward of the earth. Detections were made with the C3 "outer" coronagraph during Apr. 29.3-30.0 UT, the comet moving in from 31.43 R_sun from the sun's centre in p.a.296.2 deg (with respect to solar north); with the C2 "inner" coronagraph during May 1.6-1.8 and 2.5-2.6 (minimum 2.88 R_sun); and with C3 during May 3.0-5.0 out to 30.51 R_sun in p.a. 114.6 deg. The following positions are summarised from more detailed observations in MPCs: 1997 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 Apr. 29.265 1 50.6 +14 43 30.024 2 01.8 +14 57 May 1.649 2 27.8 +15 21 2-5 2.479 2 41.0 +15 35 3.020 2 50.3 +15 41 4.990 3 21.7 +16 00 IAUC 6650 (extract) Ephemeris by G.Hurst using EPH.EXE by N.James: m = 13.0 + 5.0 log R + 10.0 log r Date R.A. (2000) Dec. R r Elong Mag. Motion h m o ' (AU) (AU) o "/hr P.A. 1997 May 8.00 4 2.06 +15 55.9 1.005 0.261 14.9 7.2 448 91 9.00 4 14.32 +15 53.6 0.980 0.294 16.9 7.6 438 91 10.00 4 26.37 +15 50.2 0.957 0.326 18.9 8.0 432 91 11.00 4 38.30 +15 45.4 0.936 0.359 20.8 8.4 429 92 12.00 4 50.16 +15 39.3 0.917 0.390 22.7 8.7 428 92 13.00 5 2.01 +15 31.6 0.900 0.421 24.6 9.0 428 93 14.00 5 13.84 +15 22.4 0.886 0.452 26.5 9.3 429 93 15.00 5 25.68 +15 11.4 0.873 0.482 28.4 9.5 429 94 16.00 5 37.51 +14 58.7 0.862 0.511 30.4 9.8 429 94 17.00 5 49.31 +14 44.3 0.853 0.540 32.3 10.0 429 95 18.00 6 1.07 +14 28.1 0.847 0.568 34.2 10.2 428 96 19.00 6 12.76 +14 10.3 0.841 0.596 36.1 10.4 426 96 20.00 6 24.35 +13 50.8 0.838 0.624 38.0 10.6 423 97 21.00 6 35.82 +13 29.7 0.837 0.651 39.8 10.7 419 97 22.00 6 47.13 +13 7.3 0.837 0.677 41.6 10.9 414 98 23.00 6 58.26 +12 43.6 0.839 0.703 43.4 11.1 408 99 24.00 7 9.18 +12 18.8 0.842 0.729 45.2 11.3 401 99 25.00 7 19.87 +11 53.1 0.847 0.755 46.8 11.4 393 100 26.00 7 30.30 +11 26.6 0.853 0.780 48.5 11.6 385 100 27.00 7 40.46 +10 59.6 0.861 0.805 50.0 11.7 376 100 28.00 7 50.33 +10 32.1 0.870 0.829 51.6 11.9 366 101 29.00 7 59.91 +10 4.4 0.881 0.854 53.0 12.0 356 101 30.00 8 9.19 +9 36.6 0.892 0.878 54.4 12.2 345 102 31.00 8 18.16 +9 8.8 0.905 0.901 55.7 12.3 334 102 Guy M Hurst