Circular No. 6464

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 C/1996 Q1 (TABUR) The improved parabolic orbital elements below are taken from MPC

27690. J. Jahn, Bodenteich, Germany, notes the very strong resemblance to the orbit (MPC 13459) of comet C/1988 A1 (Liller). As in the case of comets C/1988 F1 and C/1988 J1, it is certain that these objects separated from each other in the general vicinity of their previous perihelion passage, despite the greater temporal separation (with C/1988 A1 = 1988a = 1988 V having T = 1988 Mar. 31 and original period 2900 years). The ephemeris uncertainty for comet C/1996 Q1 in early October is still ∼ 1^{o}.

T = 1996 Nov. 3.562 TT  ω = 57.^{o}234
Ω = 31.516 }2000.0
q = 0.84202 AU  i = 73.234
1996 TT α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Δ  r  ϵ  β  m_{1}
Aug. 25 4^{h}53.^{m}08 − 7^{o}31.^{′}1 1.245 1.497 82.^{o}5 42.^{o}0 9.7
30 5 01.83 − 5 23.4 1.123 1.432 84.2 44.5 9.3
Sept. 4 5 11.57 − 2 46.7 1.001 1.367 85.7 47.4 8.9
9 5 22.82 + 0 31.0 0.881 1.303 87.0 50.5 8.4
14 5 36.41 + 4 48.2 0.765 1.240 87.8 54.1 7.9
19 5 53.82 +10 32.6 0.654 1.179 88.0 58.4 7.3
24 6 17.85 +18 22.5 0.554 1.121 87.0 63.4 6.7
29 6 54.04 +28 53.0 0.474 1.065 84.3 69.4 6.2
Oct. 4 7 53.45 +41 30.9 0.425 1.013 79.5 76.1 5.7
9 9 31.40 +52 24.2 0.419 0.966 73.3 82.1 5.5
14 11 35.29 +55 54.6 0.459 0.925 67.5 85.2 5.5
19 13 12.16 +52 43.6 0.533 0.891 63.0 84.8 5.6
24 14 09.96 +47 32.3 0.628 0.865 59.4 81.9 5.9
29 14 44.15 +42 34.5 0.734 0.848 56.5 77.4 6.1
Nov. 3 15 05.81 +38 16.3 0.843 0.842 53.9 72.1 6.4
8 15 20.54 +34 35.0 0.953 0.846 51.6 66.5 6.7
13 15 31.21 +31 22.9 1.058 0.860 49.5 61.1 7.0

Total visual magnitudes: Aug. 23.09 UT, 9.7: (M. Plsek, Lelekovice, Czech Republic, 0.20-m reflector); 23.79, 10.0 (A. Pearce, Woodend, Vic., Australia, 20-cm reflector); 24.50, 10.2 (C. E. Spratt, Victoria, BC, 0.20-m reflector); 25.09, 9.3 (K. Sárneczky, Ráktanya, Hungary, 20×60 binoculars); 26.08, 9.7 (K. Hornoch, Lelekovice, Czech Republic, 0.35-m reflector).

1996 August 30  \begin{matrix}c \\ ◯ \end{matrix} Copyright 1996 CBAT  Brian G. Marsden