------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1794 2002 Aug 05 09.49UT 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.theastronomer.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMET 2002 O6 IAUC 7944 carried details of the detection (presumably via WWW) of a comet on SOHO images of 2002 July 25 and 27 by M. Suzuki of Japan when the object was estimated to be about magnitude 9. Unusually, a follow-up observation of this SOHO comet was possible visually when A. Hale of USA estimated the following positions: 2002 August 1.451 RA 03h 53.73m DEC -13 58.7 (2000) m1=9.5. 1.468 03 53.92 -13 56.2 Andrew Pearce, Australia, using 20x80 binoculars, estimated it much brighter at m1=6.9 on August 3.85UT with a coma diameter of 6'. Brian Marsden has computed the following preliminary orbital elements on MPEC 2002-P10: T 2002 Sept 9.4180 TT w 78.70300 ) e 1.00000000 O 330.95900 ) 2000.0 q 0.4946700 A.U. i 58.66600 ) Source: MPEC 2002-P10 Positions are geocentric The following ephemeris by Guy Hurst using EPH.EXE by Nick James suggests, although the comet is bright, the small solar elongation will make observation difficult: m = 10.0 + 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. 2002 Aug 5.00 4 39.30 -3 9.4 0.279 0.942 67.2 7.0 763 46 6.00 4 54.42 +0 33.3 0.270 0.925 63.3 6.8 819 46 7.00 5 10.54 +4 29.5 0.263 0.908 59.2 6.7 864 46 8.00 5 27.61 +8 34.6 0.259 0.891 54.9 6.6 896 46 9.00 5 45.53 +12 42.2 0.258 0.873 50.7 6.5 909 47 10.00 6 4.12 +16 45.2 0.259 0.856 46.6 6.4 903 49 11.00 6 23.19 +20 36.5 0.264 0.839 42.8 6.3 877 50 12.00 6 42.49 +24 10.2 0.271 0.822 39.4 6.3 836 52 13.00 7 1.74 +27 22.0 0.281 0.805 36.6 6.3 782 55 14.00 7 20.69 +30 9.7 0.293 0.789 34.3 6.3 723 57 15.00 7 39.08 +32 32.7 0.307 0.772 32.6 6.3 660 60 16.00 7 56.71 +34 32.1 0.323 0.755 31.3 6.3 599 63 17.00 8 13.42 +36 9.8 0.341 0.739 30.5 6.4 540 66 18.00 8 29.11 +37 28.1 0.361 0.723 30.0 6.4 486 69 19.00 8 43.72 +38 29.7 0.381 0.707 29.8 6.4 436 72 20.00 8 57.24 +39 16.9 0.403 0.691 29.7 6.4 392 75 21.00 9 9.69 +39 51.9 0.426 0.676 29.7 6.4 353 78 22.00 9 21.10 +40 16.5 0.450 0.661 29.9 6.5 318 81 23.00 9 31.55 +40 32.5 0.474 0.646 30.0 6.5 287 84 24.00 9 41.08 +40 41.2 0.499 0.631 30.2 6.5 261 87 25.00 9 49.78 +40 43.6 0.525 0.617 30.3 6.5 237 90 26.00 9 57.71 +40 40.6 0.552 0.604 30.5 6.5 217 93 27.00 10 4.94 +40 32.9 0.579 0.591 30.6 6.5 199 97 28.00 10 11.52 +40 21.1 0.606 0.578 30.6 6.5 184 101 29.00 10 17.53 +40 5.7 0.634 0.566 30.7 6.5 171 104 30.00 10 23.02 +39 47.0 0.662 0.555 30.7 6.5 160 108 31.00 10 28.03 +39 25.3 0.691 0.545 30.7 6.6 151 112 Guy M Hurst