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Circular No. 9154
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 L4 (WISE)
A. Mainzer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports the discovery
of a comet on 12- and 22-micron images taken by the WISE spacecraft
(discovery observation tabulated below), noting the object to have
a "hazy" coma of diameter about 15", with a fan-shaped tail
extending about 30" toward the west; she adds that this comet is
approximately as bright as comet P/2010 D1 was when WISE first
observed that object (cf. IAUC 9118), which was around mag 21
optically. After posting on the 'NEOCP' webpage, ground-based CCD
astrometrists have also noted the object's cometary appearance.
W. H. Ryan (Magdalena Ridge Observatory, 2.4-m reflector) reports
that R-band images taken on June 18.25-18.30 UT show a distinct
coma of mag 18.9-19.5. S. Foglia reports that exposures taken by
R. Holmes (Ashmore, IL, U.S.A., 0.81-m telescope, June 18.4) show a
coma diameter of 5" with magnitude 19.5-20.0. R. Miles writes that
an exposure taken on June 18.44 with the 2.0-m f/10 "Faulkes
Telescope North" at Haleakala in 1".3 seeing shows the object in a
crowded star field to be diffuse and about 2".5 across with a very
faint tail about 6" long in p.a. 250 deg.
2010 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Observer
June 15.45621 21 43 21.53 +47 35 45.7 WISE
The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic
orbital elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2010-M20.
T = 2010 Jan. 24.066 TT Peri. = 85.253
Node = 126.567 2000.0
q = 2.66207 AU Incl. = 102.120
COMET C/1998 D1, C/1999 R5, C/1999 S8 (SOHO)
Further to IAUC 9153, additional Kreutz sungrazers have been
found on SOHO website images, all stellar in appearance; peak
magnitudes were about 7-7.5 for C/1998 D1 and about 7.5 for the
others.
Comet 1998 UT R.A.(2000)Decl. Inst. F MPEC
C/1998 D1 Feb. 26.985 22 58.7 - 9 14 C3 MK 2010-L60
Comet 1999 UT R.A.(2000)Decl. Inst. F MPEC
C/1999 R5 Sept. 9.321 10 52.3 + 4 45 C3 JR 2010-L60
C/1999 S8 20.071 11 33.2 + 0 37 C3 JR 2010-L60
(C) Copyright 2010 CBAT
2010 June 18 (9154) Daniel W. E. Green
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