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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1916      2003 Sep 05 05.12UT
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
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2003 RB5
M. Blythe, F. Shelly, M. Bezpalko, R. Huber, L. Manguso, D. Torres,
R. Kracke, M. McCleary and H. Stange, Lincoln Laboratory ETS, New
Mexico report discovery of a fast-moving object with the 1.0-m
f/2.15 reflector + CCD:
2003 09 04.31335 00 36 01.81 +12 23 38.2          14.8        704
2003 09 04.32590 00 35 20.18 +12 43 40.3          14.9        704
2003 09 04.33836 00 34 38.63 +13 03 35.7          14.8        704

Follow-up results from Peter Birtwhistle, Great Shefford:
2003 09 04.85684000 04 18.27 +26 50 10.1          14.6 R      J95
2003 09 04.85741900 04 16.06 +26 51 03.9          14.8 R      J95
2003 09 04.85799800 04 13.81 +26 51 58.4          14.7 R      J95
2003 09 04.87020800 03 26.43 +27 11 01.1          14.5 R      J95
2003 09 04.87200200 03 19.42 +27 13 49.4          14.6 R      J95
2003 09 04.87379600 03 12.42 +27 16 37.2          14.5 R      J95

Orbital elements:
2003 RB5
PHA 0.033A
Epoch 2003 June 10.0 TT = JDT 2452800.5                 MPC
M 317.68584              (2000.0)            P               Q
n   0.38542959     Peri.   27.84585     +0.94386282     -0.24859015
a   1.8699903      Node   341.93136     -0.09154168     +0.43593100
e   0.4678402      Incl.   44.53987     +0.31740055     +0.86496653
P   2.56           H   20.7           G   0.15           U   7

Ephemeris:
Date    TT    R. A. (2000) Decl.   Delta    r     Elong. Phase
V
2003 09 05    23 54.76   +30 30.6  0.029  1.030   139.7  39.3  14.6
2003 09 06    22 39.22   +50 22.8  0.035  1.027   122.8  55.6  15.5
2003 09 07    21 16.45   +60 01.5  0.045  1.025   110.5  67.1  16.4
2003 09 08    20 05.07   +63 32.2  0.057  1.022   102.8  74.1  17.1
M.P.E.C. 2003-R26

Peter Birtwhistle has sent an hourly ephemeris but due to parallax
considerations, he recommends downloading predictions from:
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/NEO/ToConfirm.html

Gary Poyner advises that he observed the object visually on 2003
Sept 5.00UT at magnitude 15.2v.

Guy M Hurst