------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1978 2004 Mar 16 23.04UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 2003 VB12 M. E. Brown, C. A. Trujillo, D. Rabinowitz, QUEST II collaboration (station 675) at Palomar Mountain report their discovery of a slow-moving object with the 1.2-m Oschin Schmidt + CCD: 2003 08 30.41504 03 17 10.06 +05 52 13.3 EE045675 2003 09 29.38282 03 16 41.92 +05 46 45.3 EE045675 2003 11 14.27288 03 15 10.09 +05 38 16.5 20.8 R EE045675 2003 11 14.33594 03 15 09.97 +05 38 15.4 20.5 R EE045675 2003 11 14.40149 03 15 09.83 +05 38 14.9 20.7 R EE045675 Subsequently the object has been identified by station 644 (Palomar Mountain/NEAT: 2001 09 26.48667 03 12 35.20 +05 31 31.2 EE045644 2001 10 24.52713 03 11 44.54 +05 25 59.1 EE045644 2002 10 09.43293 03 14 19.47 +05 36 50.3 EE045644 2002 10 29.43127 03 13 39.41 +05 32 59.3 EE045644 The following orbital elements have appeared on MPEC 2004-E45: 2003 VB12 Epoch 2004 July 14.0 TT = JDT 2453200.5 MPC M 357.88147 (2000.0) P Q n 0.00008040 Peri. 311.82711 -0.11942975 -0.98555605 a 531.6576335 Node 144.49288 +0.96115905 -0.14507665 e 0.8574338 Incl. 11.93041 +0.24881681 +0.08736153 P 12260 H 1.7 G 0.15 U 4 Ephemeris by Brian Marsden: Date TT R. A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. Phase V V 2004 03 16 03 13.85 +05 45.6 90.086 89.489 52.9 0.5 21.3 2004 03 26 03 14.17 +05 48.0 90.202 89.480 43.4 0.4 21.3 2004 04 05 03 14.54 +05 50.4 90.296 89.470 34.2 0.4 21.3 2004 06 14 03 17.70 +06 03.2 90.223 89.406 36.3 0.4 21.3 2004 06 24 03 18.10 +06 04.0 90.109 89.397 45.3 0.5 21.3 2004 07 04 03 18.45 +06 04.3 89.976 89.387 54.4 0.5 21.3 2004 07 14 03 18.75 +06 04.4 89.826 89.378 63.5 0.6 21.3 Dan Green also comments on IAUC 8304 that this is apparently the second-largest known transneptunian object (after Pluto), with an absolute magnitude H = 1.7. Various media reports over the last 48 hours have referred to this object as SEDNA although the opportunity to assign a name has not yet been reached. EDITORIAL NOTICE It has been brought to our attention that messages have been sent to some subscribers purporting to come from the 'TA Management Team' and apparently containing a virus attachment. These messages have NOT been sent by us and clearly the attachments should not be opened under any circumstances. Guy M Hurst