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IAUC 9131: C/2010 F3; C/2009 O2

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                                                  Circular No. 9131
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  D. W. E. Green, Room 209; Department of
 Earth and Planetary Sciences; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
CBAT@IAU.ORG; CBATIAU@EPS.HARVARD.EDU
URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN 0081-0304


COMET C/2010 F3 (SCOTTI)
     J. V. Scotti, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, reports his
discovery of another comet, described as slightly diffuse with a
tail on 0.9-m Spacewatch reflector CCD mosaic images taken on Mar.
20 (discovery observation tabulated below); co-added images taken
on Mar. 20.3 UT with the Spacewatch 1.8-m reflector (6.8 min
exposure time) show a coma diameter of 5" with a narrow tail that
extends to at least 1'.06 (with a possible faint extension out to
1'.47) in p.a. 289 deg.  Scotti adds that nine co-added images with
the latter telescope on Mar. 21.3 show a 7" coma with a long,
narrow tail extending at least to 1'.9 in p.a. 289 deg, and
possibly as far as 3'.0 in p.a. 288 deg.  Following posting on the
Minor Planet Center's 'NEOCP' webpage, other CCD astrometrists have
also commented on the object's cometary appearance.  W. H. Ryan
(Magdalena Ridge 2.4-m reflector, Mar. 22.3) finds that his R-band
images show a coma and a thin tail in p.a. about 290 deg.  M. Busch
and D. Koschny measaured a tail about 20" long in p.a. 280 deg on
images taken on Mar. 22.96 by D. Abreu with the 1.0-m f/4.4
reflector of the ESA Optical Ground Station at Tenerife.  P.
Birtwhistle (Great Shefford, Berkshire, England, 0.40-m reflector,
Mar. 23.0) finds a coma diameter of about 8" and a straight, thin
tail 30" long in p.a. 287 deg.

     2010 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Mar. 20.18761   11 36 24.37   + 4 19 05.2   19.8   Scotti

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic
orbital elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2010-F67.

     T = 2010 Nov.  2.199 TT          Peri. =  42.477
                                      Node  = 157.151   2000.0
     q = 5.23577 AU                   Incl. =   4.572


COMET C/2009 O2 (CATALINA)
     H. Sato (Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 0.30-m reflector) finds a very
diffuse coma (3' x 5') with no condensation on images taken on Mar.
12.5 and 13.5 UT, suggesting an apparent disintegration of this
comet.  L. Buzzi, Varese, Italy, reports that images with taken on
Mar. 13.18 (0.60-m reflector) show no clear central condensation
(contrary to his images from Mar. 5.18).  H. Mikuz, Crni Vrh
Observatory, finds that R-band images taken on Mar. 8.16 with a
0.60-m telescope show a coma of mag 16 without distinct central
condensation and a fan-like tail about 1'.5 long in p.a. about 300
deg, while images from Mar. 14.17 show a fading to mag about 17.

                      (C) Copyright 2010 CBAT
2010 March 23                  (9131)            Daniel W. E. Green

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