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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2392      2007 Nov 10 13.50UT
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      Backup: gmh@wdcc1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk
WORLD WIDE WEB                         http://www.theastronomer.org
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ROSETTA ( = 2007 VN84)
Staff at the Minor Planet Centre have issued the following message on 
M.P.E.C. 2007-V70 regarding 2007 VN84 (see TA E-Circular 2391) which has 
been identified as the Rosetta spacecraft:

                                EDITORIAL NOTICE
A posting on the Minor Planet Mailing List by Denis Denisenko suggested 
that the object designated 2007 VN84 on MPEC 2007-V69 might be the 
Rosetta spacecraft. Our investigation of this possibility, using 
information from the Satellite Situation Center 
(http://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/), show that this suggestion is indeed 
correct. The positional information available on the SSC website does 
not begin until Nov. 12.0 UT.  However, the agreement at this time 
between the predicted positions for Rosetta and 2007 VN84 is well within 
1'.  The minor planet 2007 VN84 does not exist and the designation is to 
be retired.

This incident, along with previous NEOCP postings of the WMAP 
spacecraft, highlights the deplorable state of availability of 
positional information on distant artificial objects (whether in earth 
orbit or in solar orbit).  The Distant Artificial Satellites
Observations (DASO) page on the MPC website 
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/SpaceJunk/SpaceJunk.html) lists a number 
of such objects, but has to be updated on a fairly regular basis from 
five different sources and data is not always available for the 
time-spans needed. A single source for information on all distant 
artificial objects would be very desirable.

TA Editor: This follow-up message failed to arrive at TAHQ but I am 
indebted to several TA subscribers for pointing out the link to Rosetta.

SUPERNOVAE 2007lf-2007mp
Astronomers of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II collaboration, report on 
CBET 1102 the discovery of thirty-seven supernovae designated as above. 
All are fainter than g magnitude 19.

SUPERNOVA 2007mq IN UGC 11495
Discovery by Sehgal and Puckett of a possible supernova (CBET 1103):
SN      2007 UT      R.A.  (2000.0)  Decl.    Mag.     Offset
2007mq  Oct 15.37   19 34 57.90  +87 16 33.6  19.6   8.6"W, 2.6"N

SUPERNOVAE 2007mr-2007nl
Further Sloan Digital Survey supernova discoveries (21), all fainter 
than magnitude g=21.

Guy M Hurst