Circular No. 6059

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION

Postal Address: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Telephone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only) TWX 710-320-6842 ASTROGRAM CAM EASYLINK 62794505 MARSDEN@CFA or GREEN@CFA (.SPAN, .BITNET or .HARVARD.EDU)

PERIODIC COMET MACHHOLZ 2 (1994o) Additional observations have shown that this comet is of short period,

meaning that comet 1986 VIII = 1991 XII now becomes P/Machholz 1. The following orbital elements are from MPEC 1994-Q06:

T = 1994 Sept.17.821 TT  ω = 147.^{o}547
e = 0.79054  Ω = 247.484 }2000.0
q = 0.75272 AU  i = 13.266
a = 3.59366 AU n^{o} = 0.144677 P = 6.81 years
1994 TT α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Δ  r  ϵ  β  m_{1}
Aug. 26 7^{h}03.^{m}48 +49^{o}41.^{′}7 0.417 0.851 56.^{o}0 100.^{o}0  9.9
28 7 17.83 +47 14.0 0.434 0.836 54.4 100.6  9.9
30 7 30.32 +44 49.9 0.453 0.821 53.0 100.8  9.9
Sept. 1 7 41.36 +42 30.6 0.473 0.808 51.9 100.7  9.9
3 7 51.24 +40 16.5 0.494 0.796 51.0 100.3 10.0
5 8 00.21 +38 07.7 0.515 0.786 50.2  99.6 10.0
7 8 08.46 +36 04.3 0.537 0.776 49.6  98.6 10.1
9 8 16.14 +34 06.0 0.560 0.769 49.2  97.4 10.1
11 8 23.35 +32 12.6 0.583 0.762 48.9  96.0 10.1
13 8 30.18 +30 23.9 0.607 0.758 48.6  94.4 10.2
15 8 36.72 +28 39.6 0.631 0.754 48.5  92.7 10.3
17 8 43.01 +26 59.4 0.655 0.753 48.5  90.8 10.3
19 8 49.09 +25 23.1 0.680 0.753 48.5  88.9 10.4
21 8 55.00 +23 50.3 0.704 0.755 48.6  86.9 10.5
23 9 00.77 +22 21.0 0.729 0.758 48.8  84.8 10.6
25 9 06.40 +20 54.8 0.754 0.763 49.0  82.8 10.7

SATURN We have learned from observers at Pic du Midi on Aug. 14 (J. M.

Gomez, J. Caquel, P. Laques) and at the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Black Birch station on Aug. 20 (T. E. Love, I. Jordan) of what is apparently a single low-contrast white spot, perhaps 12^{o} long, near the south limb of Saturn. The Pic du Midi observers report longitude = 305^{o}, latitude = −65^{o} (system III), while the New Zealand observers report a centralmeridian transit at ∼ Aug. 20.58 UT (corresponding to longitude 277^{o}).

1994 August 23 Daniel W. E. Green