Circular No. 8879

Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION

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

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COMET P/2007 T3 (SHOEMAKER-LEVY) R. H. McNaught reports his recovery of comet P/1990 V1 (= 1990o

= 1990 XV; cf. IAUC 5135) on CCD images taken with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring; the comet shows a 10′′ coma and no tail on Oct. 12, and McNaught’s astrometric measures are given below:

2007 UT  α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Mag.
Oct. 12.44402  18^{h}51^{m}51.^{s}48  −50^{o}45′12′′.6  18.2
12.45295  18 51 53.13  −50 45 08.6  18.2
12.46192  18 51 54.50  −50 45 02.2  18.3
12.47080  18 51 56.16  −50 44 57.5  18.5
12.51989  18 52 04.55  −50 44 28.4  18.0
13.41858  18 54 40.98  −50 35 47.2  18.1

The indicated correction to the orbital elements on MPC 51824 is ΔT = +4.5 days. Orbital elements by B. G. Marsden from 36 observations spanning 1990–2007 (mean residual 0′′.8; ephemeris H_{10} = 15.0):

Epoch = 1990 Sept. 26.0 TT

T = 1990 Sept.18.5921 TT  ω = 310.^{o}6225
e = 0.771949  Ω = 52.0443 }2000.0
q = 1.524077 AU  i = 24.3335

a = 6.683058 AU n^{o} = 0.0570481 P = 17.28 years Epoch = 2007 Dec. 6.0 TT

T = 2007 Dec. 17.3371 TT  ω = 312.^{o}8443
e = 0.773589  Ω = 51.6501 }2000.0
q = 1.460069 AU  i = 24.5612

a = 6.448748 AU n^{o} = 0.0601854 P = 16.38 years

2007TT α_{2000}  δ_{2000}  Δ  r  ϵ  β  Mag.
Oct. 7 18^{h}36.^{m}70 −51^{o}33.^{′}4 1.487 1.703 84.^{o}0 35.^{o}7 18.2
17 19 05.32 −49 58.8 1.495 1.645 79.9 36.6 18.0
27 19 36.79 −47 54.2 1.502 1.593 76.3 37.3 17.9
Nov. 6 20 09.99 −45 13.4 1.509 1.548 73.2 37.8 17.8
16 20 43.88 −41 52.6 1.518 1.512 70.6 38.1 17.7
26 21 17.54 −37 51.4 1.531 1.484 68.3 38.2 17.6
Dec. 6 21 50.30 −33 13.1 1.551 1.467 66.4 38.0 17.6
16 22 21.81 −28 04.2 1.581 1.460 64.6 37.5 17.6
2007 October 13  \begin{matrix}c \\ ◯ \end{matrix} Copyright 2007 CBAT  Daniel W. E. Green