News - December

12/31/2002

Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) still surprises and develops better than expected. The comet is currently a very large object (coma diameter >10') and very sensitive to sky background and instrumentation, what leads to a great scatter in the estimated brightness. Under dark skies the comet should be visible in binoculars by now with the brightness ranging in the 7-8^m region. The further evolution is hard to predict; a perihelion survival seems now possible. (Comets Mailing List IAUC 8040)
An updated orbit for C/2002 Y1 (Juels-Holvorcem) increases the perihelion distance to 0.75 AU on April 14, 2003. The comet will now be visible until the beginning of April 2003, for mid-European observers. The maximum brightness may not be brighter than 10^m. (MPEC 2002-Y65)

12/30/2002

New Discovery!: A new comet has been discovered by amateurs Charles W. Juels (Fountain Hills, AZ, USA) and Paulo R. Holvorcem (Campinas, Brazil) working together with a 12cm-recfractor and CCD. Comet C/2002 Y1 (Juels-Holvorcem) was estimated as 15^m and shows a coma diameter up to 2.5'. The first and preliminary orbit indicates a perihelion in April 2003 at about 0.67 AU. The comet may reach then 9-10^m. For mid-European observers it will be observable until the end of March, just when the maximum brightness has been reached. (IAUC 8039, MPEC 2002-Y50)

12/24/2002

The possible double nucleus of comet C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa) could not be confirmed. (Comets Mailing List)

12/23/2002

A Call for observations of comet C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa) has been issued by G. Jones and J. Brandt. (Comets Mailing List)

12/22/2002

Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) develops rapidly. Latest observations with large binoculars place the comet already at 9^m. However, due to its faint and large outer coma, it seems to be no easy object to estimate. Brightness estimations (with the smallest possible instrument) are strongly encouraged. (Comets Mailing List)

12/21/2002

There is an until now unconfirmed report of a possible double nucleus (about 4" distant) of comet C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa). The astrometric measurements by José Ramón Vidal Blanco (Spain, MPC code 945) were made on Dec. 20. Confirming observations are strongly encouraged! Some current images of this comet were taken by Ken-ichi Kadota (Dec. 14, Dec. 19), Bert Stevens (Dec. 15), by students of the Amtsgymnasiet Sønderborg (Dec. 18) and by Konrad Horn (Dec. 19).
(Comets Mailing List, Cometas_Obs Mailing List)

12/17/2002

IAUC 8033 reports that comet C/2002 X5 was independently discovered on Dec. 14.858 UT by Shigehisa Fujikawa with a 0.16m reflector. The comet is now named officially as C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa). This is Fujikawa's sixth credited discovery: He discovered already comets C/1969 P1, C/1970 B1, C/1975 T1, 72P/Denning-Fujikawa (= P/1978 T2) and C/1983 J1 (he was independent discoverer of three other comets but did not get his name attached). (IAUC 8033)

12/16/2002

A new orbit for comet C/2002 X5 (Kudo) (naming still inofficial!) increases the perihelion distance to about 0.18 AU and changes the other orbital elements, too. This means that the comet may reach 0^m at perihelion, which is due on Jan. 28, 2003. The visibility conditions for central Europe are now as follows: The comet will get lost in the morning twilight in mid-January with about 2-3^m. It will re-appear in the evening sky at the beginning of March with about 6-7^m but will get lost again in May. In this timespan the comet will not climb much higher than 20 degrees elevation in dark skies.
Latest visual observations of the comet confirm the current brightness of about 7.5^m. T. Lovejoy was able to identify the comet as a faint (about 10-11^m) object in SOHO/SWAN all-sky images of early November. Later images than Nov. 13, are not available - one reason, why the comet wasn't found earlier there. A. Nakamura relates that Tetsuo Kudo, the discoverer, is a well-known astrophotographer in Japan and started searching for comets some years ago. C/2002 X5 was actually discovered while he was waiting to finish an exposure. (MPEC 2002-Y14, Comets Mailing List)

12/15/2002

The first and preliminary orbit for comet C/2002 X5 (Kudo) adopts the retrograde solution. This means that the comet will pass its close perihelion on January 24, 2003, at only 0.11 AU. Extrapolating the current brightness indicates a -3^m comet near the Sun. It should be observable with SOHO. For mid-Europaean observers the comet will be visible until mid-January low in the morning sky. After perihelion the comet will be visible again in the evening sky beginning from the end of February as a 5^m object. (MPEC 2002-X84)
New Discovery!: On Dec 13, 2002, the Japanese amateur Tetsuo Kudo discovered a new comet visually with 20x120 binoculars. Kudo estimated the comet as 9.5^m, confirming observations by Kadota and Kushida placed the comet even as bright as 7.5^m with a coma diameter up to 5.5'. No orbit for comet 2002 X5 is available yet. A search ephemeris can be found on the NEO Confirmation Page. There are preliminary orbit solutions by S. F. Hönig which suggest the comet very close to Earth around Dec. 20 (0.05 AU) moving quickly southward. If this turns out to be true the comet will become invisible for mid-European observers around Dec. 22. A retrograde solution was also provided by Hönig. The comet is most likely very large and thus not an easy object. (IAUC 8032)

12/11/2002

Two SOHO comets received orbits and designations: C/2002 X3 (SOHO) and C/2002 X4 (SOHO) were both found by X.-M. Zhou and are members of the Kreutz group. Both were visible at the time of the solar eclipse on Dec. 04. The MPEC gives ephemerides for this time so it may be worth to check the eclipse images. The comets were quite faint (around 8^m). SOHO has now found 540 comets, but there are still about 30 comets in the backlog! (MPEC 2002-X64)

12/09/2002

New Discovery!: On Dec 07, 2002, the NEAT survey reported the discovery of a new comet which was then posted at the NEO CP. After that this object was confirmed by several observers. With pre-discovery observations by LONEOS (Oct. 05, and Dec. 06) and NEAT (Nov. 05) elliptic elements for the 17.5^m comet P/2002 X2 (NEAT) were obtained. The comet will pass perihelion on March 29, 2003, at about 2.5 AU. It has a period of about 8.1 years. This is NEATs 29^th comet discovery. (IAUC 8029, MPEC 2002-X51)

12/08/2002

New Discovery!: On Dec 05, 2002, the LINEAR survey discovered an apparently asteroidal object which was placed on the NEO CP due to its unusual motion. D. T. Durig (Sewanee), P. R. Holvorcem and M. Schwartz (Nogales) and G. Hug, R. Valentine, and B. Leifer (Eskridge) were able to detect cometary activity. The first orbit for the 15.5^m bright comet C/2002 X1 (LINEAR) indicated a close perihelion already in September 2002. This would have meant that the comet should have been visible with the SOHO spacecraft and therefore a retrograde solution was suggested by S. Hönig (Dossenheim). This was finally confirmed with the second orbit: The comet will reach perihelion in July 2003, at about 2.5 AU. The comet is an intrinsically bright object and may reach 13^m in Fall 2003. This is LINEARs 99^th comet discovery. (IAUC 8028, MPEC 2002-X47)