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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1372      1999 Jan 06 20.40UT
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.demon.co.uk/astronomer
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COMET C/1998 Y1 (LINEAR)
LINEAR has discovered another comet.  CCD astrometry:
     1998 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.        m1    Observer
     Dec. 22.30945    7 03 18.04   +20 18 49.8   18.5   Blythe
          22.37792    7 03 16.45   +20 21 13.1   18.6     "
          23.92879    7 02 47.06   +21 16 02.1   16.7   Lehmann
          23.93406    7 02 46.90   +21 16 13.6   16.5   Sarounova
          23.93640    7 02 46.89   +21 16 18.2            "
          23.99209    7 02 45.60   +21 18 17.1   17.0   Moravec
          24.00179    7 02 45.35   +21 18 37.4            "
          24.22660    7 02 41.22   +21 26 36.7   16.0   Offutt
          24.23815    7 02 40.94   +21 27 00.7   16.4     "
          24.33438    7 02 38.66   +21 30 25.7          Rogers
          24.34913    7 02 38.37   +21 30 56.4            "

M. Blythe, F. Shelly and M. Bezpalko (Socorro).
Measurers J.Stuart, H. Viggh and R. Sayer.  1.0-m f/2.15 reflector.
G. Lehmann and J. Kandler (Schonbrunn).  0.50-m f/4.0 reflector.
L. Sarounova (Ondrejov).  0.65-m f/3.6 reflector.  Coma about 25"
in diameter, short and probably wide tail to northwest.  m2 = 17.8.
Z. Moravec (Klet).  0.57-m f/5.2 reflector.
W. Offutt (Cloudcroft).  0.60-m f/7 Ritchey-Chretien.  Central
condensation about 6"; coma extending 8" north, 7" east, 6" south
and 11" west.
J. E. Rogers (Camarillo).  0.25-m Schmidt-Cassegrain.

     The following parabolic orbital elements, by Brian Marsden,
are from the selected data above.  The comet is likely of short
period.

     T = 1998 Nov. 20.962 TT          Peri. = 339.790
                                      Node  =  98.987   2000.0
     q = 1.78642 AU                   Incl. =  29.492

1998/99     R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r    Elong. Phase  m1
Dec. 23     7 03.08    +20 43.2    0.863    1.833  166.1   7.4 16.3
     28     7 01.29    +23 39.4    0.870    1.849  172.0   4.3 16.4
Jan.  2     6 59.21    +26 31.3    0.884    1.866  175.7   2.3 16.4
      7     6 57.03    +29 14.7    0.906    1.885  172.6   3.9 16.5
     12     6 54.95    +31 46.1    0.935    1.907  167.0   6.7 16.7
     17     6 53.19    +34 03.2    0.972    1.929  161.2   9.5 16.8
     22     6 51.94    +36 04.7    1.015    1.954  155.6  12.0 16.9
IAUC 7072 (extract)

EDITORIAL NOTE
I regret that I am currently suffering from the 'flu', along with a
sizeable proportion of the population! I apologise for the
disruption to these circulars. We hope matters will return to
normal shortly.

Guy M Hurst