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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2029      2004 Aug 25 23.10UT
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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COMET C/2004 Q1 (TUCKER)
Roy A. Tucker, Tucson, AZ, reports his discovery of a comet with a 
coma diameter of about 50" and a 70" tail in p.a. about 230 degrees 
on unfiltered CCD images taken with a 0.35-m reflector on 2004 Aug 
23.45566. The discovery magnitude was estimated to be 14.6. A 
preliminary parabolic orbit was published on MPEC 2004-Q43 and this 
has a perihelion distance of 2 a.u. with perihelion due in 
December. The following geocentric ephemeris is based on output 
from JPL Horizons (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph).

  0h UTC        RA (2000) Dec     Delta    r      dRA  dDec   mag
                                   a.u.   a.u.   "/hr  "/hr
2004-Aug-24   02 42.32 +02 18.4   1.797  2.364   -2.2  43.6  14.5
2004-Aug-25   02 42.24 +02 35.9   1.778  2.358   -3.4  44.2  14.5
2004-Aug-26   02 42.14 +02 53.8   1.760  2.352   -4.6  44.9  14.4
2004-Aug-27   02 42.00 +03 11.9   1.742  2.346   -5.9  45.6  14.4
2004-Aug-28   02 41.82 +03 30.2   1.724  2.340   -7.2  46.3  14.4
2004-Aug-29   02 41.61 +03 48.9   1.706  2.334   -8.5  47.0  14.3
2004-Aug-30   02 41.37 +04 07.8   1.688  2.328   -9.9  47.7  14.3
2004-Aug-31   02 41.08 +04 27.1   1.670  2.323  -11.3  48.5  14.3
2004-Sep-01   02 40.76 +04 46.6   1.653  2.317  -12.7  49.3  14.2
2004-Sep-02   02 40.40 +05 06.5   1.635  2.311  -14.2  50.1  14.2
2004-Sep-03   02 40.00 +05 26.7   1.618  2.305  -15.7  50.9  14.2
2004-Sep-04   02 39.56 +05 47.2   1.601  2.300  -17.3  51.7  14.1
2004-Sep-05   02 39.07 +06 08.1   1.584  2.294  -18.9  52.6  14.1

The comet is currently in Cetus and it is at its highest from the 
UK at the beginning of morning astronomical twilight. If the orbit 
is accurate it will reach 12th magnitude in early November when it 
will be in Andromeda.

Nick James