------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1971 2004 Feb 22 17.03UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ASAS 153616-0839.1 A photograph of this recently discovered U-Geminorum variable (found originally in ASA data) has been published on the cover of this month's issue of The Astronomer. The photograph is by Katsumi Haseda of Japan secured on 2004 Feb 1 (120mm f/3.5 astro camera on T-Max 400 film). This picture may aid identification. The position of the object is: RA 15h 36m 15.99s DEC -08 39' 07.7" (2000) being derived by Arne Henden in USA. The range is believed to be 11.5-18:V. A provisional comparison star sequence has been relayed by Bruce Sumner from photometry by Henden: ID RA (2000) DEC X Y N V ERR B-V 4 15 36 14.6 -08 44 53 -20 -346 1 11.111 0.001 0.551 5 15 36 19.9 -08 40 27 58 -81 1 11.127 0.001 0.994 10 15 36 01.4 -08 35 45 -217 202 1 13.850 0.004 0.806 11 15 36 08.6 -08 35 28 -109 219 1 13.934 0.004 0.662 12 15 36 10.2 -08 39 33 -86 -27 1 14.342 0.005 0.714 14 15 36 06.6 -08 43 29 -140 -262 1 14.797 0.007 0.715 15 15 36 07.0 -08 39 26 -134 -19 1 14.934 0.008 1.143 16 15 36 04.9 -08 40 40 -164 -93 1 15.684 0.014 0.695 COMET C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) Jonathan Shanklin has e-mailed us from Antarctica. He reports that whilst at Stanley in the Falklands he was able to observe Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), a comet destined to become a Northern Hemisphere object in May of this year and which may become a naked eye object. On 2004 Feb 19.04UT when the comet was at 40 degrees altitude, he made the visual magnitude 7.2 and the coma diameter 9 arc minutes using 10x50 binoculars. Guy M Hurst