Circular No. 7711

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/2001 Q4 (NEAT)

Additional CCD astrometry:

2001 UT α_{2000} δ_{2000} m_{1} Observer
Aug. 31.72519 2^{h}43^{m}40.^{s}21 −25^{o}35′52′′.1 19.3 Sugie
31.72755 2 43 40.24 −25 35 52.1  _{”}
31.72991 2 43 40.17 −25 35 53.8  _{”}
Sept. 6.39133 2 42 39.82 −26 05 01.3  NEAT
6.41278 2 42 39.51 −26 05 06.7  _{”}
6.43443 2 42 39.14 −26 05 14.5  _{”}
7.40779 2 42 27.37 −26 10 14.6  _{”}
7.42896 2 42 27.12 −26 10 21.6  _{”}
7.45084 2 42 26.87 −26 10 27.0  _{”}
9.45241 2 42 01.31 −26 20 45.0  _{”}
9.50431 2 42 00.58 −26 21 01.1  _{”}
10.39848 2 41 48.50 −26 25 38.5  _{”}
10.40980 2 41 48.41 −26 25 42.1  _{”}
10.42066 2 41 48.23 −26 25 45.7  _{”}
10.47832 2 41 47.42 −26 26 03.3  _{”}
10.48958 2 41 47.24 −26 26 06.3  _{”}
10.50780 2 41 47.03 −26 26 12.5  _{”}

A. Sugie (Dynic Astronomical Observatory). Comm. by S. Nakano. NEAT (Palomar). 1.2-m Schmidt. Measured by M. Hicks and S. Pravdo.

The parabolic orbital elements below are from 38 observations, Aug. 24–Sept. 10. T is still uncertain by several weeks, but it appears that this comet may become an easy binocular (and possibly naked-eye) object in May–June 2004; the ephemeris assumes H = 5.0 and r^{−3}.

T = 2004 May 25.993 TT  ω = 0.^{o}659
Ω = 210.670 }2000.0
q = 1.00055 AU  i = 100.145
2001TT α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Δ  r  ϵ  β  m_{1}
Sept. 8 2^{h}42.^{m}33 −26^{o}13.^{′}3 9.425 10.032 124.^{o}7 4.^{o}7 17.4
18 2 39.87 −27 04.5 9.276  9.959 130.6 4.4 17.3
28 2 36.70 −27 53.8 9.149  9.886 135.3 4.1 17.3
Oct. 8 2 32.93 −28 39.3 9.046  9.813 138.1 3.9 17.2
18 2 28.67 −29 19.5 8.968  9.739 138.7 3.9 17.2

2001 September 10  \begin{matrix}c \\ ◯ \end{matrix} Copyright 2001 CBAT  Daniel W. E. Green