------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1834 2002 Dec 18 19.30UT 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 C/2002 X5 (KUDO-FUJIKAWA) The comet announced on TA E-Circular 1832 has now been designated as above in a note appearing on IAUC 8033. This follows an independent visual discovery by Shigehisa Fujikawa on Dec 14.86UT when the comet was estimated to be of magnitude 9, using a 0.16-m reflector. The following orbital elements by Dan Green have also now been made available: T = 2003 Jan. 28.776 TT Peri. = 188.205 Node = 119.389 2000.0 q = 0.18485 AU Incl. = 94.431 Ephemeris by Guy Hurst using EPH.EXE by Nick James: Date R.A. (2000) Dec. R r Elong Mag. Motion h m o ' (AU) (AU) o "/hr P.A. 2002 Dec 18.00 16 19.32 +42 54.6 1.075 1.168 69.0 7.8 253 115 19.00 16 27.68 +42 10.9 1.063 1.147 68.1 7.7 258 116 20.00 16 36.01 +41 24.4 1.052 1.126 67.1 7.6 263 117 21.00 16 44.30 +40 34.8 1.041 1.105 66.1 7.5 268 118 22.00 16 52.53 +39 42.3 1.031 1.084 65.1 7.4 272 120 23.00 17 0.70 +38 46.9 1.022 1.063 64.0 7.3 277 121 24.00 17 8.78 +37 48.6 1.014 1.041 62.8 7.2 281 122 25.00 17 16.78 +36 47.4 1.006 1.020 61.6 7.1 285 123 26.00 17 24.66 +35 43.5 0.999 0.998 60.4 7.0 289 124 27.00 17 32.43 +34 36.9 0.994 0.976 59.1 6.9 292 125 28.00 17 40.08 +33 27.7 0.989 0.953 57.8 6.8 295 127 29.00 17 47.59 +32 16.0 0.984 0.931 56.5 6.7 298 128 30.00 17 54.97 +31 1.9 0.981 0.908 55.1 6.5 301 129 31.00 18 2.20 +29 45.7 0.979 0.885 53.6 6.4 303 130 2003 Jan 1.00 18 9.28 +28 27.4 0.977 0.862 52.2 6.3 304 131 2.00 18 16.21 +27 7.1 0.976 0.839 50.7 6.2 306 132 3.00 18 22.98 +25 45.0 0.976 0.815 49.2 6.1 307 132 4.00 18 29.60 +24 21.3 0.977 0.791 47.6 5.9 308 133 5.00 18 36.06 +22 56.0 0.979 0.767 46.0 5.8 308 134 6.00 18 42.37 +21 29.3 0.982 0.743 44.4 5.7 308 135 7.00 18 48.52 +20 1.4 0.985 0.718 42.8 5.5 308 136 8.00 18 54.52 +18 32.2 0.989 0.694 41.2 5.4 308 137 9.00 19 0.37 +17 2.0 0.995 0.668 39.5 5.2 307 138 10.00 19 6.07 +15 30.6 1.001 0.643 37.8 5.1 307 138 Martin Mobberley comments: Comet Kudo-Fujikawa is currently a circumpolar object from the UK, at +42 Dec, but is much better placed in the morning sky than the evening sky; in the latter it is a little more than 20 degrees altitude in the NW evening sky at astronomical twilight and 7th mag. The Full Moon complicates matters, but, once this has reduced to a crescent in the morning sky, by Dec 30th, and the comet brightens to maybe 6th mag, the comet should be a very nice object at 30 degrees altitude in the Eastern morning sky at astronomical twilight (6am in the UK). The solar distance should be 0.9 AU by this time, so, hopefully, a good tail should be developing nicely. The comet will be close to the Hercules/Lyra border at this time. By Jan 7th the comet will be entering Aquila and will be only 0.7AU from the Sun. The MPEC mag is predicted as 5.0 by this time and the comet will still be a decent 18 degrees altitude at dawn astronomical twilight. Comet Kudo-Fujikawa may still be just detectable from the UK by Full Moon (Jan 18th) when it will be at 8-degrees altitude in dawn *nautical* twilight, but, possibly mag 3.0, still due East, for those with a flat UK horizon! Perihelion occurs on Jan. 28th at a q of 0.185 AU. After disappearing into dawn twilight, UK observers should next see it as an evening object, very low in the western evening twilight at about 8th mag, in Lepus (below Rigel). Guy M Hurst ---------------------------------------------------------------- Guy M Hurst, 16 Westminster Close, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP, England. Tel/FAX:(01256) 471074. International +441256471074 MOBILE: (07905) 332226 WWW http://www.theastronomer.org INTERNET: guy@tahq.demon.co.uk OR gmh@ast.star.rl.ac.uk ----------------------------------------------------------------