News - November 2000

11/29/2000

James Danaher, Michael Oates and Xavier Leprette found several archival and real time SOHO comets bringing the total of discovered SOHO comets to nearly 260. (Sungrazer Homepage)

11/27/2000

New Discovery!: After a hiatus of 16 months a without a visual comet discovery Syogo Utsunomiya (Aso, Kumamoto, Japan) reported the discovery of a fast-moving 8^m comet using 25x100 binoculars on Nov 18, 2000. All follow-up attempts were unsuccessful but on Nov 25, 2000, Albert F. Jones (Nelson, New Zealand) reported the discovery of a comet while observing the variable star T Aps with a 8cm refractor. Although both positions were far apart a linkage between both was established and the generated search ephemeris allowed confirming CCD observations. According to the first and preliminary orbit comet C/2000 W1 (Utsunomiya-Jones) is now only 0.3 AU from earth and will pass its perihelion on Dec 26, 2000, at about 0.32 AU. Current brightness estimations place the comet at about 7^m - 8^m. The comet might become as bright as 6 but won't be observable for mid-European observers until February 2001 - then only as bright as about 11^m. Both discoveres have already discovered comets. Albert F. Jones - now 80 years old - found the first one in 1946 (C/1946 P1 (Jones)! (IAUC 7526, 7527)
New Discovery!: An asteroidal object, discovered on Sep 24, 2000, by the LINEAR project, turned out to be cometary according to observations by C. W. Hergenrother and A. E. Gleason (Steward Observatory). The 53^rd comet discovered by LINEAR was about 18^m and is of short period (P about 7 years). Comet P/2000 SO₂₅₃ (LINEAR) will pass its perihelion in May 2001 at about 1.7 AU. (IAUC 7524, MPEC 2000-W39)
Four SOHO comets received designations and orbits: C/1997 V3 (SOHO), C/1997 V4 (SOHO), C/1997 V5 (SOHO) and C/2000 V3 (SOHO) were all found by Michael Oates. (MPEC 2000-W18)

11/21/2000

Michael Oates found a real time comet in SOHO/C2 images of Nov 19/20, 2000, and two further archival comets of December 1998. The inofficial counting of confirmed SOHO/LASCO comet discoveries is now at 251. (e-mail, Sungrazer Homepage)

11/19/2000

Michael Oates found a real time comet in SOHO/C2 images of Nov 16, 2000. (Sungrazer Homepage)

11/18/2000

Maik Meyer found a real time comet in SOHO/C2 images of today. Further archival SOHO comets of December 1998 were found by Michael Oates. (Sungrazer Homepage)

11/16/2000

Further archival SOHO comets were found by Xavier Leprette (December 1997) and Michael Oates (December 1998). (Sungrazer Homepage, BAA Comet Section)

11/14/2000

Nine SOHO comets received orbits and designations: C/1997 T8 (SOHO), C/1997 U2 (SOHO), C/1997 U3 (SOHO), C/1997 U4 (SOHO), C/1997 U5 (SOHO), C/1997 U6 (SOHO), C/1997 U7 (SOHO), C/2000 V1 (SOHO) and C/2000 V2 (SOHO). The archival comets were found by Michael Oates in C2 data, C/2000 V1 by Michael Boschat in C3 and C/2000 V2 by Doug Biesecker in C2. (MPEC 2000-V35, 36)

11/12/2000

Kenichi Kadota (Ageo, Saitama, Japan) recovered comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 after its solar conjunction. The comet was surprisingly bright (about 13^m) in an CCD image taken at Nov 4, 2000. The comet broke up in 1995 leading to a brightness outburst from 12^m to 6^m. The comet is not observable from mid-European latitudes. (IAUC 7518)
Xavier Leprette found another archival SOHO comet of December 1997. Michael Oates found a real time comet in C2 images of Nov 11, 2000. (Sungrazer Homepage, BAA Comet Section)

11/09/2000

Xavier Leprette found another two archival SOHO comets of December 1997. (Sungrazer Homepage, BAA Comet Section)

11/07/2000

Four further archival SOHO comets - found by Michael Oates and Xavier Leprette - have received orbits and designations. Comets C/1997 T7 (SOHO), C/1999 V2 (SOHO), C/1999 V3 (SOHO) and C/1999 V4 (SOHO) are all members of the Kreutz group. (IAUC 7517, MPEC 2000-V22)
Michael Oates and Xavier Leprette found further several archival SOHO comets of November 1997. (Sungrazer Homepage, BAA Comet Section)

11/06/2000

Doug Biesecker found another comet in real time SOHO/C2 data of Nov 05, 2000. (Sungrazer Homepage, BAA Comet Section)

11/05/2000

Four archival SOHO comets - all found by Michael Oates - have received orbits and designations. Comets C/1997 T6 (SOHO), C/1999 U7 (SOHO), C/1999 U8 (SOHO) and C/1999 U9 (SOHO) were only visible in C2 and are members of the Kreutz group. (MPEC 2000-V14)
Michael Oates and Xavier Leprette found several archival SOHO comets of October 1997. Michael Boschat found a real-time comet in SOHO/C3 images of Nov 04, 2000. (e-mail, Sungrazer Homepage, BAA Comet Section)

11/01/2000

New Discovery!: On Oct. 23, 2000, M. Tichy together with J. Ticha and M. Kocer (Klet Observatory, Czech Republic) discovered a 17.5^m comet. Comet P/2000 U6 (Tichy) passed its perihelion on Oct. 04, 2000, at about 2.1 AU. It is a short period comet with a period of about 7.3 years. (IAUC 7515, MPEC 2000-V03)
New Discovery!: The LINEAR project discovered its 52^nd comet on Oct. 29, 2000. After the initial report as an asteroidal object several observers noted the cometary appearance. The 14.5^m comet C/2000 U5 (LINEAR) passed its perihelion already in February 2000, at about 1.9 AU. The comet might have been as bright as 11^m from January through April but then situated in the southern skies and in conjunction with the Sun. (IAUC 7515, MPEC 2000-V02)