News - August 2004

2004 August 30

New Discovery!: On August 27, 2004, Don E. Machholz (Colfax, CA, USA) discovered his 10^th comet visually with a 0.15-m reflector. Since his last discovery in 1994 (he then discovered even three comets in four months!) he had searched 1457 hours. Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz), which is now slightly brighter than 11^m seems to become a nice binocular object this winter. The comet will pass perihelion in late January 2004, at a distance of about 1.2 AU. For central European observers it will become visible low above the horizon at midnight in November with maybe 6^m. It then gradually rises and also approaches the Earth with perigee (0.35 AU) around the beginning of 2005. At this time the comet should be at its brightest with maybe 4^m nearly at the zenith in the evening. For European observers it remains visible while becoming fainter far into 2005. (IAUC 8394, MPEC 2004-Q69, Comets Mailing List)
New Discovery!: On August 23, 2004, Roy A. Tucker (Tucson, Az, USA) discovered his second comet on CCD images with a 0.35-m reflector. After posting on the NEO Confirmation Page the 13^m comet was also confirmed by J. Foster (University Hills) and by J. E. McGaha (Tucson). Comet C/2004 Q1 (Tucker) will pass perihelion in December 2004, at about 2.0 AU. It might become as bright as 11^m in October/November 2004 easily observable nearly at the zenith in the evening sky for Central European observers. (IAUC 8393, MPEC 2004-Q68)
Further SOHO Kreutz group comets: C/2002 K11 (SOHO) (D. Evans) and C/2004 O1 (SOHO), C/2004 O2 (SOHO) and C/2004 O3 (SOHO), which were the last finds by the X.-M. Zhou. Current official SOHO score: 822 comets. (MPEC 2004-Q11)

2004 August 09

New Discovery!: The NEAT survey reports the discovery of a new comet on Aug 05, 2004. After posting the object on the NEO Confirmation Page several observers - including J. Ticha and M. Tichy (Klet), P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford) and P. Kusnirak (Ondrejov) - confirmed the cometary nature. The 19^m comet C/2004 P1 (NEAT) will pass (according to the first and preliminary orbit) perihelion in May 2006, at about 5.7 AU. This is the 44^th comet by NEAT. (IAUC 8383, MPEC 2004-P23)
Another SOHO Kreutz group comet: C/2004 N6 (SOHO) found by the late X.-M. Zhou. Current official SOHO score: 818 comets. (MPEC 2004-P31)

2004 August 05

Further SOHO Kreutz group comets: C/2004 N1 (SOHO) (X.-M. Zhou), C/2004 N2 (SOHO) (J. Sachs), C/2004 N3 (SOHO) (J. Sachs), C/2004 N4 (SOHO) (X.-M. Zhou) and C/2004 N5 (SOHO) (X. Leprette). Current official SOHO score: 817 comets. (MPEC 2004-P19)

2004 August 05

Word has been received of the tragic death of one of China's most well-known amateur comet hunters, Xing-ming Zhou. Xing-ming died today in a traffic accident on his way home from an astronomical conference. He was 39 years old. He ranks as the fourth best SOHO comet discoverer and also scanned the night skies since 1985. He was credited as independent discoverer of comets C/1990 N1 and 122P. One of his latest finds was C/2004 H6 in SWAN images. (e-mail)
Two archival SOHO Kreutz group comets: C/1996 L2 (SOHO) and C/1996 M3 (SOHO), both found by X. Leprette. Current official SOHO score: 812 comets. (MPEC 2004-P15)

2004 August 04

Further SOHO comets (all Kreutz group): C/2004 L11 (SOHO) (T. Hoffman), C/2004 M1 (SOHO) (R. Kracht), C/2004 M2 (SOHO) (J. Sachs), C/2004 M3 (SOHO) (D.-H. Chen), C/2004 M4 (SOHO) (T. Hoffman), C/2004 M5 (SOHO) (T. Hoffman), C/2004 M6 (SOHO) (T. Hoffman) and C/2004 M7 (SOHO) (X. Leprette). Current official SOHO score: 810 comets. (MPEC 2004-P12, MPEC 2004-P13)