James Ellis Nov 28, 2000
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>From: "Johan Theron" <jtheron@...>
>To: "Southern Skies Astronomy" <southskyastro@...>
>Subject: AstroAlert: Comet Utsunomiya-Jones
>Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 22:45:45 +0200
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>Southern Skies Astronomy -
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> AstroAlert: Comet Utsunomiya-Jones (C/2000 W1)
>
>On November 18th, Syogo Utsunomiya (Kumamoto, Japan) discovered
>a possible 8th-magnitude comet while sweeping in the constellation
>Vela with his 25 x 150 binoculars. But the object was moving rapidly
>southward at nearly 5 degrees per day, and the Central Bureau for
>Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was at
>first unable to confirm the find.
>
>Then on November 25th, Albert F. Jones of Nelson, New Zealand,
>reported a similar 8th-magnitude comet in Apus while observing
>with his 3-inch refractor. Even though Jones's comet was 46 degrees
>away from that seen a week earlier by Utsunomiya, CBAT astronomers
>suspected they might be one and the same. They notified additional
>Southern Hemisphere observers, and on November 26th A. C. Gilmore
>obtained eight CCD images during a three-hour period with the
>Mount John University Observatory's 1-meter reflector. The identity
>was clinched.
>
>CBAT director Daniel W. E. Green announced the discovery of
>Comet Utsunomiya-Jones (C/2000 W1) in IAU Circular 7526, on which
>this AstroAlert is based. (For more about the IAU Circulars,
>visit http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html )
>
>Calculations by Brian G. Marsden show that this comet
>is in a retrograde orbit -- moving "backwards" compared to the
>major planets. It will reach its near point to the Sun
>(perihelion) in late December, just inside the orbit of Mercury,
>and may brighten to 6th or even 5th magnitude around that time.
>Unfortunately, it will then be passing behind the Sun as seen
>from Earth; it won't be observable at all during the last week
>of December and first two weeks of January. By the time it
>emerges from the Sun's glare in late January, it will probably
>have faded to 10th magnitude as it recedes from both the Earth
>and the Sun.
>
>Currently this comet can only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere.
>The following ephemeris, based on Marsden's preliminary parabolic
>orbit, gives its right ascension and declination for the next few
>days, its elongation from the Sun in degrees, and the constellation
>through which it is passing.
>
>Roger W. Sinnott
>Sky & Telescope
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------
> Ephemeris for Comet Utsunomiya-Jones
>
> Date R.A. (2000) Dec. Elong. Const.
>(0h UT) h m o o
>Nov 27 16 38 -74.4 53.4 Aps
>Nov 28 17 46 -69.5 50.1 Aps
>Nov 29 18 23 -64.2 47.3 Pav
>Nov 30 18 46 -59.1 45.0 Pav
>Dec 1 19 00 -54.5 43.1 Tel
>Dec 2 19 10 -50.3 41.6 Tel
>Dec 3 19 17 -46.7 40.3 Tel
>Dec 4 19 23 -43.5 39.2 Sgr
>Dec 5 19 27 -40.6 38.2 Sgr
>Dec 6 19 30 -38.1 37.2 Sgr
>Dec 7 19 32 -35.9 36.3 Sgr
>Dec 8 19 34 -33.9 35.4 Sgr
>Dec 9 19 38 -32.2 34.4 Sgr
>Dec 10 19 36 -30.6 33.5 Sgr
>----------------------------------------------
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