Circular No. 8820

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION

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

IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)

CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)

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Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)

COMET C/2007 E2 (LOVEJOY)

Further to IAUC 8819, numerous precise CCD positions have now been reported, and they appear together with the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements on MPEC 2007-F32.

T = 2007 Mar. 27.565 TT  ω = 340.^{o}609
Ω = 232.436 }2000.0
q = 1.09294 AU  i = 95.894

The following ephemeris magnitudes are based on H_{10} = 8.5.

2007 TT α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Δ  r  ϵ  β  Mag.
Mar. 11 20^{h}49.^{m}29 −53^{o}30.^{′}8 1.258 1.126 58.^{o}6 48.^{o}8  9.5
13 20 47.17 −52 35.4 1.218 1.119 59.8 50.1  9.4
15 20 44.93 −51 36.5 1.176 1.112 61.0 51.4  9.3
17 20 42.55 −50 33.7 1.134 1.107 62.2 52.7  9.2
19 20 40.02 −49 26.4 1.092 1.102 63.5 54.0  9.1
21 20 37.34 −48 13.9 1.048 1.098 64.9 55.2  9.0
23 20 34.48 −46 55.3 1.004 1.096 66.4 56.5  8.9
25 20 31.43 −45 29.6 0.960 1.094 67.9 57.6  8.8
27 20 28.17 −43 55.7 0.915 1.093 69.5 58.8  8.7
29 20 24.69 −42 12.3 0.871 1.093 71.2 59.8  8.6
31 20 20.96 −40 17.7 0.826 1.094 73.0 60.8  8.5
Apr. 2 20 16.95 −38 10.1 0.782 1.097 74.9 61.6  8.4
4 20 12.63 −35 47.1 0.739 1.100 76.8 62.3  8.3
6 20 07.98 −33 06.2 0.696 1.104 78.9 62.8  8.1
8 20 02.94 −30 04.2 0.655 1.109 81.2 63.1  8.0
10 19 57.47 −26 37.9 0.615 1.115 83.5 63.2  7.9
12 19 51.53 −22 43.5 0.578 1.122 86.1 63.0  7.8
14 19 45.04 −18 17.5 0.543 1.130 88.7 62.6  7.7
16 19 37.95 −13 17.0 0.513 1.138 91.5 61.8  7.6

Visual total-magnitude and coma-diameter estimates: Mar. 16.70 UT, 9.1, 4′ (D. A. J. Seargent, Cowra, N.S.W., 25×100 binoculars); 17.85, 9.6, 3′.0 (A. Pearce, Nedlands, W. Australia, 0.41-m reflector); 18.64, 9.3, 2′.7 (S. Rae, Hamilton, New Zealand, 0.25-m reflector).

2007 March 18  \begin{matrix}c \\ ◯ \end{matrix} Copyright 2007 CBAT  Daniel W. E. Green