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IAUC 9173: COMET P/2010 T2 (PANSTARRS); C/1999 D2, C/1999 D3, C/1999 O5, C/1999 Q4

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 9173
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
New postal address:  Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
CBATIAU@EPS.HARVARD.EDU           ISSN 0081-0304
URL http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


COMET P/2010 T2 (PANSTARRS)
     Richard Wainscoat reports the discovery of a comet (discovery
observation tabulated below) with a coma diameter of approximately
4" on 45-s CCD images taken with the 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien "Pan-
STARRS 1" telescope (+ w filter; bandpass 400-700 nm) at Haleakala.
Wainscoat noticed the object to be diffuse (the non-stellar nature
of the object being rather subtle) two days ago when examining
images of moving objects identified by the Pan-STARRS Moving Object
Processing System.  Wainscoat and M. Micheli then located the
object in images acquired by the same telescope with a g-band
filter on Oct. 7 UT, and the object was noted to be also diffuse in
those images.  Following posting on the Minor Planet Center's
'NEOCP' webpage, R. S. McMillan, University of Arizona, reports
that R-band CCD observations were obtained on Oct. 16.4 UT by J. V.
Scotti, M. Terenzoni, and A. J. Mendez with the 2.3-m f/3
Spacewatch reflector at Kitt Peak (and measured by J. A. Larsen),
showing a slightly diffuse coma of diameter 4" (in 2" seeing), the
magnitude given as 19.5-19.6.

     2010 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Oct.  6.43000    1 07 26.26   - 1 02 02.6   21.4

The available astrometry, the following preliminary elliptical
orbital elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC
2010-U07.

     T = 2011 July 29.179 TT          Peri. = 359.450
     e = 0.33281                      Node  =  59.268   2000.0
     q = 3.72938 AU                   Incl. =   8.077
       a =  5.58968 AU     n = 0.074580     P =  13.2 years


COMETS C/1999 D2, C/1999 D3, C/1999 O5, C/1999 Q4 (SOHO)
     Further to IAUC 9171, additional Kreutz sungrazers have been
found on SOHO website images; K. Battams notes that all were
stellar in appearance with no tails.  C/1999 D2 and C/1999 Q4
peaked at mag approximately 7; C/1999 D3 and C/1999 O5 peaked at
mag approximately 7.5.

 Comet        1999 UT       R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/1999 D2    Feb. 27.888   22 55.9  - 8 58   C3    MK   2010-O33
 C/1999 D3         28.238   22 55.5  - 9 16   C3    MK   2010-O33
 C/1999 O5    July 26.179    8 07.3  +18 01   C3    JR   2010-O33
 C/1999 Q4    Aug. 25.138    9 54.7  + 9 59   C3    JR   2010-O33

                      (C) Copyright 2010 CBAT
2010 October 16                (9173)            Daniel W. E. Green

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