News - March 2009

2009 March 22

New Discovery!: R. H. McNaught reports his discovery of yet another new comet on Mar. 20, 2009, in the course of the Siding Spring Survey. After placement on the NEO Confirmation Page J. E. McGaha (Tucson), A. C. Gilmore (Mt. John), E. Guido, G. Sostero, and P. Camilleri (remotely from near Mayhill), J. W. Young (Table Mountain), and R. Ligustri (remotely from Grove Creek) were able to confirm the cometary nature of the 16^m object. The first and preliminary orbit for comet C/2009 F5 (McNaught) shows perihelion already on Nov. 8, 2008, at about 2.3 AU. This is the 58^th comet for the Siding Spring survey and the 48^th for McNaught. (IAUC 9033, subscription required, MPEC 2009-F60)
New Discovery!: R. H. McNaught reports his discovery of another new comet on Mar. 19, 2009, in the course of the Siding Spring Survey. After placement on the NEO Confirmation Page G. Sostero, E. Guido, V. Gonano, and P. Camilleri (Remanzacco), and R. Ligustri (remotely from near Mayhill) confirmed the cometary nature of the 17.5^m object. The first and preliminary orbit for comet C/2009 F4 (McNaught) shows perihelion on Jan. 10, 2012, at about 5.8 AU. This is the 57^th comet for the Siding Spring survey and the 47^th for McNaught. (IAUC 9032, subscription required, MPEC 2009-F54)
Recovery!: E. Guido, G. Sostero, and P. Camilleri have recovered comet P/2001 MD₇ on Mar. 17, and 18 (remotely from near Mayhill) and on Mar. 20 (remotely from Grove Creek). Comet P/2009 F3 (LINEAR) was as bright as 18^m. The correction to the predictions on MPC 56804 and the 2008-2009 ICQ Comet Handbook is Delta(T) = +0.01 day. The comet will pass perihelion on Sep. 8, 2009, at about 1.22 AU, and my be as bright as 11^m around that time. (IAUC 9031, subscription required, MPEC 2009-F51)

Further SOHO comets (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2009 A3    Kreutz  H. Su          First seen by STEREO on Jan. 1, 2009
C/2009 A4    Kreutz  H. Su          First seen by STEREO on Jan. 1, 2009
C/2009 A5    Kreutz  H. Su          First seen by STEREO on Jan. 1, 2009

Official SOHO comets: 1596 (MPEC 2009-F30)

Further STEREO comets (all named STEREO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2008 E10   Kreutz  A. Watson
C/2008 Y16   Kreutz  A. Watson
C/2008 Y17   Kreutz  K. Battams
C/2009 A6    Kreutz  A. Watson

Official STEREO comets: 12 (MPEC 2009-F31)

2009 March 19

New Discovery!: R. H. McNaught reports his discovery of a new comet on Mar. 19, 2009, in the course of the Siding Spring Survey. After placement on the NEO Confirmation Page R. Ligustri (remotely from Grove Creek) confirmed the cometary nature of the 18^m object. The first and preliminary orbit for comet C/2009 F2 (McNaught) shows perihelion on Nov. 20, 2009, at about 5.2 AU. This is the 56^th comet for the Siding Spring survey and the 46^th for McNaught. (IAUC 9030, subscription required, MPEC 2009-F47)
New permanent comet numberings:
216P/LINEAR = P/2009 D1 = P/2001 CV₈
(IAUC 9030, subscription required)

2009 March 19

New Discovery!: S. M. Larson (Univ. of Arizona) reports his discovery of a new comet in the course of the Mt. Lemmon Survey on Mar. 16, 2009. After placement on the NEO Confirmation Page R. Holmes (Charleston), F. Hormuth (Calar Alto), L. Buzzi (Varese), P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford), E. Guido, G. Sostero, and P.Camilleri (remotely from near Mayhill) and W. H. Ryan (Magdalena Ridge) were able to confirm the cometary nature. The first and preliminary orbit for the 19^m comet C/2009 F1 (Larson) shows perihelion on Jun. 24, 2009, at about 1.8 AU. This is the 24^th comet for the Mt. Lemmon survey and the 4^th for Larson. (IAUC 9029, subscription required, MPEC 2009-F34)
An apparently asteroidal object discovered already on Feb. 8, 2008, in the course of the Mt. Lemmon Survey as a 20.8^m object and then designated 2008 CL₉₄ has been found cometary upon its rediscovery by S. M. Larson on Mar. 17, 2009. This was confirmed by A. R. Gibbs (Mt. Lemmon) and W. H. Ryan (Magdalena Ridge). Comet P/2008 CL₉₄ (Lemmon) passed perihelion already on Jul. 9, 2006, at about 5.4 AU. The period is about 15.4 years. (IAUC 9028, subscription required, MPEC 2009-F28)

2009 March 17

Further SOHO comets (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2008 Y10   Kreutz  J. Ruan
C/2008 Y11   Marsden R. Kracht      33^rd member of the Marsden group
C/2008 Y12   ---     R. Kracht
C/2008 Y13   Kreutz  A. Kubczak
C/2008 Y14   ---     J. Ruan
C/2008 Y15   Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2009 A2    Kreutz  H. Su          First seen by STEREO on Dec. 31, 2008

Official SOHO comets: 1593 (MPEC 2009-F17, MPEC 2009-F18)

2009 March 15

New Discovery!: K. Itagaki (Takanezawa, Tochigi, Japan) reports his discovery of a new comet on Mar. 14, 2009, on CCD images obtained with a 21-cm reflector. Comet C/2009 E1 (Itagaki) is about 10^m and displays a 4' wide coma. The cometary nature was confirmed by R. Holmes (Charleston), E. Guido, G. Sostero, and P. Camilleri (remotely from near Mayhill), J. E. McGaha (Sabino Canyon), K. Kadota (Ageo), Y. Ikari (Moriyama), and H. Abe (Yatsuka-cho). A visual confirmation by J. J. Gonzales (Aralla) on Mar. 14, shows a 9.6^m comet with a 4.5' coma and A. Hale (Cloudcroft) gives a magnitude of about 10^m.
M. Kusiak (Astronomical Observatory, Jagiellonian University) reports that the comet is visible in SOHO/SWAN UV images of Mar. 5, 11, and 12.
According to the first and preliminary orbit the comet will pass perihelion on Apr. 7, 2009, at about 0.61 AU. It will quickly be lost in the sun's glare and re-emerge as a 10-11^m morning-sky object in May and fade quickly thereafter. Itagaki is independent discoverer of comet C/1968 H1 and recoverer of 205P = 2008 R6 (Giacobini). (IAUC 9026, subscription required, IAUC 9027, subscription required, MPEC 2009-E68, MPEC 2009-E69)

2009 March 14

Further SOHO comets (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2008 W12   Kreutz  R. Matson
C/2008 X7    Kreutz  M. Uchina
C/2008 X8    Kreutz  M. Mazzucato
C/2008 X9    Kreutz  E. Banach
C/2008 X10   Kreutz  R. Kracht
C/2008 X11   Kreutz  S. Yuan
C/2008 X12   Kreutz  M. Uchina
C/2008 X13   Kreutz  R. Kracht
C/2008 X14   Kreutz  Z. Xu
C/2008 Y4    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2008 Y5    Kreutz  Z. Jin
C/2008 Y6    Kreutz  M. Uchina
C/2008 Y7    Kreutz  M. Uchina
C/2008 Y8    Kreutz  M. Kusiak
C/2008 Y9    Kreutz  M. Kusiak

Official SOHO comets: 1586 (MPEC 2009-E60, MPEC 2009-E61, MPEC 2009-E63)