News - July 2000
07/31/2000
- Jonathan Shanklin discovered a non-Kreutz comet in real time SOHO/C2 data of
July 30/31, 2000. (e-mail,
BAA Comet Section)
07/29/2000
- Michael Oates has reported another three archival C2 comets found in SOHO data of
1998. One comet was visible on Apr. 06, the other two on Apr. 07, 1998. (e-mail,
BAA Comet Section)
07/28/2000
- Comet C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) seems to have split according to observations by
M. Kidger (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias) with the 1-m Jacobus Kapteyn
Telescope. A full report about this observations can be found
here! This seems to be confirmed by
visual observations by Nicolas Biver who
reported a decrease of
brightness of more than 1m within two days. Observations are strongly
encouraged. It may be possible that the comet will now fade very quickly. (e-mail)
- Recovery!:
C. E. Delahodde and O. R. Hainaut (European Southern Observatory) recovered comet
P/2000 O1 (Kushida) = P/1994 A1 (= 1994a = 1993 XX) on July 25, 2000. The
correction to the predicted perihelion time was -0.1 day. The comet will pass its
perihelion in June 2001. (IAUC 7467, MPEC 2000-O32)
- Two more archival SOHO comets were found in C2 data of June 28, 1997, by Xavier
Leprette and of May 31, 1997, by Derek Hammer, respectively. (e-mail,
BAA Comet Section)
07/25/2000
- The new discovered comet C/2000 O1 (Koehn) was already observed in 1998
and 1999 by LINEAR as 1998 XA70 and 1999 UJ10,
respectively. The improved orbit indicates a perihelion at about 5.9 AU already in
January 2000. (MPEC 2000-O22)
- Michael Oates discovered three more possible SOHO comets in archival C2 data. One
was detected in data of May 25/26, 1997, and two in data of May 31, 1997. (e-mail,
BAA Comet Section)
07/24/2000
- New Discovery!:
On July 20, 2000, Bruce W. Koehn discovered a new comet in the course of the
LONEOS
program. The 17.5m comet C/2000 O1 (Koehn) will pass its
perihelion in January 2001, at about 5.7 AU. It won't become much brighter until
then. (IAUC 7462)
- Michael Oates discovered another possible sungrazing comet fragment in archival
C2 data of the SOHO spacecraft of May 20, 1997. (e-mail,
BAA Comet Section)
07/23/2000
- More archival SOHO comets: Michael Oates found two comets in C2 data of Dec 3
and 14, 1999. Xavier Leprette found one in C2 data of Jan 12, 1997 and again
Michael Oates found a pair of comets in C2 data of May 10, 1997. (e-mail,
BAA Comet Section)
- The SOHO comets 167 through 177 received orbits and designations:
C/1999 G3 (SOHO), C/1999 G4 (SOHO), C/1999 G5 (SOHO),
C/1999 H5 (SOHO), C/1999 H6 (SOHO), C/1999 H6 (SOHO),
C/1999 J12 (SOHO) and C/1999 X2 (SOHO) were discovered by Michael
Oates. C/2000 M9 (SOHO) and C/2000 N2 (SOHO) by Maik Meyer and
C/2000 N1 (SOHO) by Terry Lovejoy and Michael Boschat. (IAUC 7454, 7459,
7461, MPEC 2000-N34, -O06, O10)
(IAUC 7453, MPEC 2000-N31)
07/13/2000
- The SOHO comets 164 through 166 received orbits and designations:
C/2000 M6 (SOHO) (discovered by Maik Meyer), C/2000 M7 (SOHO) (by
Hartwig Lüthen and Maik Meyer) and C/2000 M8 (SOHO) (by Doug Biesecker).
(IAUC 7453, MPEC 2000-N31)
07/12/2000
- New Discovery!:
Another SOHO comet (177) was discovered by Michael Oates in archival C2 images of
May 03, 1999.
The comet has not yet been announced officially by the CBAT.
(e-mail, Sungrazer Homepage,
BAA Comet Section)
- The SOHO comets 147 and 154 through 164 received orbits and the designations:
C/1998 L7 ... L9 (SOHO), C/1998 M8 ... 10 (SOHO) and
C/1999 L6 ... L8 (SOHO) were discovered by Michael Oates.
C/2000 M3 (SOHO) by Maik Meyer, C/2000 M4 (SOHO) by Maik Meyer and
Michael Boschat and C/2000 M5 (SOHO) by Pavel Shkreby and Alexander Mimeev.
(IAUC 7453, MPEC 2000-N26) SOHO-153 could not be confirmed, so the last SOHO comet
is number 177.
07/11/2000
- The SOHO comets 148 through 152 received orbits and the designations
C/1998 L2 ... L6 (SOHO). All were discovered by Michael Oates. (IAUC 7451,
MPEC 2000-N25)
07/10/2000
07/09/2000
07/08/2000
- New Discovery!:
Two possible comets were reported in SOHO C3 images of today. The first object,
discovered by Maik Meyer and pavel Shkreby, was confirmed by other observers
(SOHO-175). The second one, detected by Michael Boschat, still awaits confirmation.
The comets have not yet been announced officially by the CBAT.
(e-mail, Sungrazer Homepage,
BAA Comet Section)
- Orbits and designations were announced for comets SOHO-144 through -146, all
discovered by Michael Oates: C/1998 K16 (SOHO), C/1998 K17 (SOHO) and
C/2000 M2 (SOHO). (IAUC 7450, MPEC 2000-N17)
07/07/2000
- New Discovery!:
SOHO-174 was discovered by Michael Oates in archival C2 images of April 3, 1999.
SOHO-173 was discovered by Michael Oates in archival C2 images of April 2, 1999.
The comet has not yet been announced officially by the CBAT.
(e-mail, Sungrazer Homepage,
BAA Comet Section)
07/02/2000
- New Discovery!:
SOHO-172 was discovered by Michael Oates in archival C2 images of April 28, 1999.
SOHO-171 was discovered by Terry Lovejoy also in C3 images of July 01, 2000.
The comets have not yet been announced officially by the CBAT.
(e-mail, Sungrazer Homepage,
BAA Comet Section)
07/01/2000
- New Discovery!:
SOHO-170 was discovered by Michael Oates in archival C2 images of April 24, 1999.
SOHO-169 was discovered by Maik Meyer in C3 images of July 01, 2000.
The comets have not yet been announced officially by the CBAT.
(e-mail, Sungrazer Homepage,
BAA Comet Section)