News - December
12/31/2002
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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 7-8m region. The further evolution
is hard to predict; a perihelion survival seems now possible.
(Comets Mailing List
IAUC 8040)
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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 10m.
(MPEC 2002-Y65)
12/30/2002
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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 15m 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 9-10m.
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
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The possible double nucleus of comet C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa) could not be
confirmed.
(Comets Mailing List)
12/23/2002
12/22/2002
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Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) develops rapidly. Latest observations with large
binoculars place the comet already at 9m. 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
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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
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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
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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 0m 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 2-3m. It
will re-appear in the evening sky at the beginning of March with about 6-7m
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
7.5m. T. Lovejoy was able to identify the comet as a faint (about
10-11m) 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
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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 -3m
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 5m object.
(MPEC 2002-X84)
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New Discovery!:
On Dec 13, 2002, the Japanese amateur Tetsuo Kudo discovered a new comet visually
with 20x120 binoculars. Kudo estimated the comet as 9.5m, confirming
observations by Kadota and Kushida placed the comet even as bright as 7.5m
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
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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 8m). SOHO has now found 540 comets, but there are
still about 30 comets in the backlog!
(MPEC 2002-X64)
12/09/2002
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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
17.5m 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 29th comet discovery.
(IAUC 8029,
MPEC 2002-X51)
12/08/2002
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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 15.5m 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 13m in Fall
2003. This is LINEARs 99th comet discovery.
(IAUC 8028,
MPEC 2002-X47)