------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1410 1999 May 23 13.27UT 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/1999 J2 (SKIFF) The Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search (LONEOS) reports its discovery of a comet. The following CCD positions are available: 1999 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 Observer May 13.40333 16 58 28.92 +63 43 15.4 16.0 Skiff 13.42119 16 58 27.59 +63 43 15.7 " 13.43905 16 58 26.12 +63 43 15.2 " B. A. Skiff (LONEOS). 0.59-m LONEOS Schmidt telescope + R filter. Measurer B. W. Koehn. Well-condensed nucleus in a coma of diameter about 15", with a faint tail extending about 40" in p.a. 30 deg. IAUC 7165 (extract) Very preliminary parabolic elements demonstrate the comet is extremely distant but very luminous: T 1999 Oct 23.9600 TT w 114.70100 ) e 1.00000000 O 47.82600 ) 2000.0 q 7.4861300 A.U. i 86.94000 ) Source: IAUC 7171 Positions are geocentric Ephemeris by G.Hurst using EPH.EXE by N.James: m = 2.0 + 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. 1999 May 22.00 16 46.52 +63 34.8 7.384 7.549 95.5 15.1 24 259 27.00 16 39.48 +63 23.8 7.385 7.545 95.3 15.1 25 254 1999 June 1.00 16 32.50 +63 8.1 7.387 7.541 94.9 15.1 25 249 6.00 16 25.68 +62 48.0 7.391 7.538 94.4 15.1 26 244 11.00 16 19.08 +62 23.3 7.398 7.534 93.8 15.1 26 239 16.00 16 12.80 +61 54.4 7.406 7.531 93.2 15.1 27 234 21.00 16 6.89 +61 21.3 7.416 7.527 92.4 15.1 27 230 26.00 16 1.41 +60 44.5 7.429 7.524 91.5 15.1 27 225 1999 July 1.00 15 56.38 +60 4.2 7.443 7.521 90.5 15.1 28 221 6.00 15 51.84 +59 20.9 7.460 7.518 89.4 15.1 28 216 11.00 15 47.80 +58 34.7 7.478 7.515 88.2 15.1 28 212 16.00 15 44.25 +57 46.2 7.497 7.512 87.0 15.1 28 208 21.00 15 41.20 +56 55.6 7.518 7.510 85.7 15.1 28 204 26.00 15 38.64 +56 3.4 7.541 7.507 84.3 15.1 28 200 31.00 15 36.54 +55 9.8 7.564 7.505 82.8 15.1 28 197 1999 Aug 5.00 15 34.88 +54 15.3 7.589 7.503 81.3 15.2 28 193 10.00 15 33.65 +53 20.1 7.614 7.501 79.8 15.2 28 189 15.00 15 32.81 +52 24.6 7.641 7.499 78.2 15.2 28 186 20.00 15 32.35 +51 28.9 7.667 7.497 76.6 15.2 28 183 25.00 15 32.25 +50 33.5 7.694 7.496 75.0 15.2 28 179 30.00 15 32.46 +49 38.5 7.720 7.494 73.4 15.2 27 176 Guy M Hurst