Electronic Telegram No. 3631
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  Daniel W. E. Green; Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
e-mail:  cbatiau@eps.harvard.edu (alternate cbat@iau.org)
URL http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


COMET 96P/MACHHOLZ
     When comet 96P passed near the sun on 2012 July 14, the SOHO spacecraft
detected (see http://sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=news/machholz_babies)
a second fragment (designated component B, which is much fainter than primary
component A, also seen in the SOHO images then) that has been measured now
astrometrically by K. Battams (originally noticed by L. Liu).  The available
astrometry appears on MPEC 2013-Q08.  The following orbital elements [which
are those published on MPC 80259 but with Delta(T) = -0.202 day] satisfy the
SOHO C2 coronagraph observations from July 14.517-14.709 UT to within one pixel
(11".4).  Comet 96P was identified by Sekanina (1990, AJ 99, 1268) as possibly
associated with the beta Andromedid meteors, and it was tied to the Arietids
and possibly both the Marsden and Kracht groups of near-sun comets by Ohtsuka
et al. (2003, PASJ 55, 321).  The association of 96P with the Quadrantid
meteors appears likely also (Sekanina and Chodas 2005, Ap.J. Suppl. 161, 551).

                    Epoch = 2012 July 12.0 TT
     T = 2012 July 14.57719 TT        Peri. =  14.75601
     e = 0.9591821                    Node  =  94.32427 2000.0
     q = 0.1237912 AU                 Incl. =  58.29892
       a =  3.0327657 AU   n = 0.18661467   P =   5.28 years


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2013 CBAT
2013 August 17                   (CBET 3631)              Daniel W. E. Green