Circular No. 6287

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION

Postal Address: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)

BMARSDEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or DGREEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science) Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)

COMET 1996 A1 Robert Jedicke, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, reports the discov-

ery, by Victoria Jedicke and himself, of a comet with the Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak. There is a tail 6′ long in p.a. ∼ 290^{o}.

1996 UT  α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  m_{1}
Jan. 14.26142  9^{h}24^{m}18.^{s}02  +7^{o}08′53′′.2  17.0
14.36210  9 24 15.45  +7 08 55.8
14.52254  9 24 11.32  +7 09 00.3
15.28146  9 23 52.55  +7 09 23.5
15.40406  9 23 49.35  +7 09 27.6  17.1
15.52343  9 23 46.23  +7 09 31.8

COMET C/1995 O1 (HALE-BOPP) This ephemeris continuation (cf. IAUC 6224) is from the orbital el-

ements on MPC 26374, which utilize observations through 1995 Dec. 8. With appropriate relative weighting of the 1993 and 1995 data, the reliability of the 1993 Apr. 27 observation (cf. IAUC 6198, 6202) is confirmed. The ‘original’ and ‘future’ values of 1/a are +0.0039 and +0.0056 AU^{−1} (P ∼ 4200 and 3400 yr). The positional uncertainty in Apr. 1997 is ∼ 2′.

1996 TT α_{2000} δ_{2000} Δ r ϵ β m_{1}
Feb. 17 19^{h}23.^{m}20 −22^{o}33.^{′}4 6.019 5.282 38.^{o}5 6.^{o}7 9.1
27 19 28.80 −21 56.0 5.807 5.186  47.2  8.1 9.0
Mar. 8 19 33.84 −21 17.1 5.578 5.089  56.0  9.3 8.8
18 19 38.16 −20 36.7 5.333 4.992  64.9 10.4 8.6
28 19 41.59 −19 54.7 5.076 4.893  73.9 11.3 8.4
Apr. 7 19 43.95 −19 11.4 4.811 4.794  83.1 12.0 8.2
17 19 45.05 −18 26.6 4.543 4.694  92.5 12.3 8.0
27 19 44.66 −17 40.3 4.275 4.594 102.2 12.4 7.8
May 7 19 42.58 −16 52.5 4.013 4.492 112.2 12.0 7.5
17 19 38.59 −16 03.0 3.762 4.390 122.5 11.2 7.3
27 19 32.50 −15 11.4 3.528 4.287 133.3  9.9 7.1
June 6 19 24.23 −14 17.6 3.316 4.183 144.3  8.1 6.8
16 19 13.82 −13 21.5 3.132 4.078 155.4  5.9 6.6
26 19 01.49 −12 23.2 2.980 3.972 165.4  3.7 6.4
July 6 18 47.75 −11 23.6 2.864 3.865 168.2  3.1 6.2
16 18 33.27 −10 24.1 2.785 3.757 160.1  5.3 6.0
26 18 18.91 − 9 26.3 2.743 3.647 148.5  8.4 5.8
1996 January 15  \begin{matrix}c \\ ◯ \end{matrix} Copyright 1996 CBAT  Brian G. Marsden