Circular No. 6719

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION

Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.

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COMET C/1997 P2 (SPACEWATCH)

Further precise CCD positions have been reported as follows:

1997 UT α_{2000} δ_{2000} m_{1} Observer
Aug. 13.91872 21^{h}39^{m}21.^{s}79 −6^{o}36′03′′.4  Pravec
13.92189 21 39 21.73 −6 36 03.5  _{”}
13.94134 21 39 21.22 −6 36 02.0 18.7  _{”}
13.97203 21 39 20.37 −6 35 59.1 18.8 Tichý
13.97407 21 39 20.30 −6 35 59.5  _{”}
13.97853 21 39 20.17 −6 35 58.8  _{”}
13.98238 21 39 20.16 −6 35 58.6  _{”}
13.99083 21 39 19.96 −6 35 57.4 18.8 Gajdoš
14.00556 21 39 19.48 −6 35 57.4  _{”}
14.35472 21 39 10.56 −6 35 37.6  Balam
14.36322 21 39 10.31 −6 35 37.1  _{”}
14.37449 21 39 10.01 −6 35 35.9  _{”}

P. Pravec (Ondřejov). 0.65-m f/3.6 reflector. Condensed coma 15′′ in

diameter, no tail apparent. M. Tichý and Z. Moravec (Kleť). 0.57-m f/5.2 reflector. Š. Gajdoš, P. Kolény and L. Kornoš (Modra). 0.6-m reflector. Poor images. D. D. Balam (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory). 1.8-m reflector.

The following parabolic orbital elements by the undersigned are from the 18 available observations. The comet is possibly of short period.

T = 1997 Oct. 27.984 TT  ω = 49.^{o}158
Ω = 292.880 }2000.0
q = 3.20655 AU  i = 9.403
1997 TT α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Δ  r  ϵ  β  m_{1}
Aug. 10 21^{h}41.^{m}03 − 6^{o}40.^{′}3 2.293 3.295 169.^{o}6 3.^{o}2 18.5
20 21 36.75 − 6 30.8 2.269 3.274 172.2  2.4 18.4
30 21 32.68 − 6 25.5 2.271 3.256 164.6  4.7 18.4
Sept. 9 21 29.40 − 6 22.3 2.300 3.241 155.0  7.6 18.4
19 21 27.41 − 6 18.8 2.352 3.228 145.2 10.2 18.4
29 21 27.04 − 6 13.0 2.426 3.219 135.6 12.6 18.5

COMET C/1997 J2 (MEUNIER-DUPOUY)

Corrigendum. On IAUC 6686, line 2, for 460–550 nm read 360–450 nm

1997 August 16  \begin{matrix}c \\ ◯ \end{matrix} Copyright 1997 CBAT  Brian G. Marsden