Circular No. 6915

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION

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COMET C/1998 K2 (LINEAR)

F. Shelly, Lincoln Laboratory ETS, Socorro, reports that one of the 37 fast-moving objects found in the LINEAR program on May 24 is a new comet. Computations at the Minor Planet Center then linked this object to one of 25 fast-movers reported by the program two nights earlier.

1998 UT α_{2000} δ_{2000} m_{1} Observer
May 22.36543 16^{h}58^{m}57.^{s}18 −28^{o}48′32′′.8 15.7 Shelly
22.38507 16 58 55.33 −28 49 07.3  _{”}
22.40467 16 58 52.84 −28 49 33.5 15.8  _{”}
22.42418 16 58 50.87 −28 50 08.9  _{”}
24.35255 16 55 18.85 −29 41 53.6 16.2  _{”}
24.37209 16 55 16.62 −29 42 24.0 16.6  _{”}
24.41125 16 55 12.08 −29 43 22.8  _{”}
24.43103 16 55 09.75 −29 43 58.1  _{”}
25.57032 16 53 00.06 −30 14 38.9 13.0 Zoltowski
25.57421 16 52 59.60 −30 14 45.2 13.6  _{”}
25.57817 16 52 59.14 −30 14 51.8 13.7  _{”}
25.58261 16 52 58.61 −30 14 58.9 13.7  _{”}
25.58696 16 52 58.10 −30 15 06.0 13.5  _{”}

F. Shelly, M. Blythe and M. Bezpalko (Lincoln Laboratory ETS). 1-m

f/2.15 reflector. Measurers J. Stuart and H. Viggh. Tail seen May 24. F. B. Zoltowski (Woomera). 0.3-m reflector. Tail ∼ 5′ long near p.a. 350^{o}.

Parabolic orbital elements, by the undersigned, from 10 observations May 22–25:

T = 1998 Sept. 3.169 TT  ω = 222.^{o}421
Ω = 68.757 }2000.0
q = 2.30537 AU  i = 64.278
1998TT α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Δ  r  ϵ  β  m_{1}
May 22 16^{h}59.^{m}60 −28^{o}38.^{′}7 1.599 2.585 163.^{o}0 6.^{o}6 13.6
27 16 50.20 −30 53.3 1.562 2.560 167.5  4.9 13.6
June 1 16 39.74 −33 08.3 1.534 2.537 168.8  4.4 13.5
6 16 28.41 −35 20.6 1.518 2.514 166.0  5.6 13.4
11 16 16.41 −37 27.5 1.511 2.492 160.7  7.7 13.4
16 16 04.04 −39 26.3 1.515 2.472 154.6 10.2 13.3
21 15 51.59 −41 15.4 1.529 2.452 148.2 12.6 13.3
26 15 39.42 −42 53.9 1.552 2.434 141.9 14.9 13.3
1998 May 25  \begin{matrix}c \\ ◯ \end{matrix} Copyright 1998 CBAT  Brian G. Marsden