------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1316 1998 Jul 05 16.50UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- BRIAN MANNING BREAKS HIND'S ASTEROID RECORD! The numbering of asteroid 1995 YF2 in the latest batch of MPCs means that eleven such objects have been attributed to Brian Manning. This is one more than the record for an English observer held previously by J.R.Hind which has remained for 141 years. We offer our sincere congratulations to Brian and to Gareth Williams for sending the relevant details. A full article from Brian will appear in the July issue of TA. SUPERNOVA 1998co IN NGC 7131 Wayne Johnson, Anza Observatory, reports his discovery of a supernova (mag 16) on CCD images obtained on June 21 and 22 with the Orange County Observers' 0.56-m telescope. SN 1998co is located 3" east and 5" north of nucleus of NGC 7131 (R.A. = 21h47m.7, Decl. = -13o11', 2000). IAUC 6950 (extract) COMET C/1998 M3 J. Larsen, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, has discovered a comet with the 0.9-m Spacewatch telescope. Available CCD astrometry: 1998 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 Observer May 26.29656 16 43 58.22 - 4 51 11.4 18.9 Blythe 26.31430 16 43 57.14 - 4 51 03.7 18.9 " 26.33217 16 43 56.01 - 4 50 51.7 18.9 " 26.34996 16 43 55.11 - 4 50 40.5 18.2 " 26.36755 16 43 54.13 - 4 50 31.8 18.2 " June 24.26372 16 17 45.24 - 1 00 30.6 17.6 Larsen 24.28486 16 17 44.16 - 1 00 22.5 17.4 " 24.30618 16 17 43.14 - 1 00 13.7 17.6 " 24.32783 16 17 41.96 - 1 00 02.9 18.0 " 24.33236 16 17 41.73 - 1 00 02.2 17.8 " 24.33629 16 17 41.55 - 1 00 00.1 17.8 " 25.14598 16 17 01.84 - 0 54 36.8 17.6 Offutt 25.15299 16 17 01.47 - 0 54 33.9 17.6 " 25.15880 16 17 01.19 - 0 54 31.5 17.8 " 25.16480 16 17 00.90 - 0 54 29.7 18.1 " J. Larsen (Kitt Peak). Tail 0'.12 long in p.a. 323 deg. W. Offutt (Cloudcroft). 0.6-m f/7 Ritchey-Chretien. Coma 20" in diameter, densest toward p.a. 330 deg. No tail seen in 200-s exposures. IAUC 6951 (extract) Elements and ephemeris: T 1998 June 28.6800 TT w 18.97800 ) e 1.00000000 O 255.51300 ) 2000.0 q 5.7700400 A.U. i 113.38700 ) Source: IAUC 6951 Positions are geocentric m = 6.5 + 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. 1998 July 1.00 16 12.41 -0 17.6 4.978 5.770 137.7 17.6 32 298 6.00 16 8.75 +0 11.2 5.034 5.770 132.5 17.6 30 298 11.00 16 5.37 +0 37.5 5.097 5.771 127.3 17.7 27 297 16.00 16 2.30 +1 1.4 5.165 5.771 122.2 17.7 25 297 21.00 15 59.54 +1 22.8 5.238 5.772 117.1 17.7 22 298 26.00 15 57.12 +1 41.9 5.315 5.773 112.0 17.7 19 298 31.00 15 55.02 +1 58.9 5.395 5.775 107.1 17.8 17 299 Guy M Hurst