News - August 2001

08/30/2001

New Discovery!: S. Pravdo, E. F. Helin, and K. J. Lawrence (JPL), report the discovery of another new comet in the course of the NEAT program on August 28, 2001. The 16.5^m comet C/2001 Q6 (NEAT) is the 15^th comet found by the NEAT program. The preliminary parabolic orbital elements indicate a perihelion at about 1.5 AU on November 3, 2001. The comet is intrinsically faint and won't probably get brighter than 14^m. (IAUC 7698, MPEC 2001-Q70)
New Discovery!: K. J. Lawrence, E. F. Helin, and S. Pravdo (JPL), report the discovery of a new comet in the course of the NEAT program on August 28, 2001. After posting the object on the NEO Confirmation Page, T. B. Spahr identified it with an asteroidal object found by the LINEAR program on Aug. 17. The 16^m comet P/2001 Q5 (LINEAR-NEAT) is the 63^th new comet found by the LINEAR program and the 14^th for NEAT. The comet is a short-period one with a P of about 6.6 years. It passed perihelion already in June 2001, at about 2 AU. (IAUC 7697, MPEC 2001-Q69)

08/29/2001

New Discovery!: S. Pravdo, E. F. Helin, and K. J. Lawrence (JPL), report the discovery of a new comet in the course of the NEAT program on August 24, 2001. The 17.5^m comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) is the 13^th comet found by the NEAT program. The first and very preliminary orbit shows a perihelion at about 4.1 AU in August 2005! The comet is still more than 11 AU away from the sun. This intrinsic very bright comet may even reach 10^m in 2005 despite the far perihelion distance. (IAUC 7695, MPEC 2001-Q67)

08/28/2001

D. H. Chen detected the 345^th SOHO comet in C2 real-time images of Aug. 25, 2001. Comet C/2001 Q3 (SOHO) was moving on a non-Kreutz orbit, which showed it passing behind the sun, reappearing south of it and entering the field of view of the C3 coronagraph. Then its southward movement stopped and the comet was again heading north, re-entering the C2 FOV. The comet has aperihelion distance of about 0.04 AU and it is not expected to be observed by ground based instruments. (MPEC 2001-Q60)

08/26/2001

Y. R. Fernandez (University of Hawaii) reports the recovery of comet 39P on images of Aug. 13, 2001, together with confirmatory images by K. J. Meech and J. Pittichova of Aug. 20, and 21, 2001. Comet 39P/2001 P3 (Oterma) was situated about 2' from the prediction by B. G. Marsden (MPC 34423). Meech also located the comet in images of 1999 May 9, and July 15. This also confirmed tentative measurements by G. V. Williams on images by D. C. Jewitt, J. X. Luu, and C. A. Trujillo of 1998 May 1 and 22. 39P was last observed in 1962 and passed Jupiter at 0.095 AU in 1963, which increased the perihelion distance from 3.4 AU to 5.5 AU and P from 7.9 to 19 years. The comet is as faint as about 20^m. (IAUC 7689, MPEC 2001-Q35)

08/22/2001

The first and preliminary orbit for comet 2001 Q2 shows that it is a periodic one with a period of about 5.5 years. According to this orbit comet P/2001 Q2 (Petriew) will pass its perihelion on Sep. 02, 2001, at about 0.95 AU. The eccentricity is still quite uncertain but the current orbit indicates a close approach to Jupiter in 1982. S. Nakano also calculated an elliptical orbit and noted the similarity to the orbit of comet 103P. The comet will become slightly brighter in August and then start to fade. According to the discoverer, Vance Petriew, the comet was found accidentally while trying to find M1 via star hopping. (IAUC 7688, MPEC 2001-Q31, personal communication)
New astrometry for comet C/2001 M10 (NEAT) shows this comet to move on a periodic orbit with a P of about 138 years. (MPEC 2001-Q21)

08/19/2001

New Discovery!: Vance Avery Petriew (Regina, SK, Canada) discovered a comet visually during a star party at Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Saskatchewan, on Aug 18, 2001, with a 0.51-m f/5 reflector. The comet was confirmed visually by R. Huziak and P. Campbell. A. Hale confirmed the comet one day later by CCD and visually. The comet 2001 Q2 is estimated as bright as 11^m and is condensed with an apparent diameter of about 3'. This is the first visual and amateur discovery in 2001. No orbit is available yet. (IAUC 7686)
New Discovery!: K. J. Lawrence, E. F. Helin, and S. Pravdo (JPL), report the discovery of a new comet in the course of the NEAT program on August 17, 2001. Follow-up observations by P. Pravec and P. Kusnirak (Ondrejov) and M. Kocer (Klet) confirmed the cometary nature. T. B. Spahr (MPC) identified the comet with single-night observations by LONEOS of July 16. The 18^m comet C/2001 Q1 (NEAT) is the 12^th comet found by the NEAT program. It will pass perihelion at the end of September 2001, at about 5.9 AU. (IAUC 7685, MPEC 2001-Q18)

08/16/2001

S. Hönig detected the 344^th SOHO comet - C/2001 P2 (SOHO) - in real-time images of Aug. 15, 2001. (MPEC 2001-Q02)

08/15/2001

R. Ligustri and C. Segarra report another outburst of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann. Segarra estimated the comet visually at about 11.8^m. The last observed outburst happened in mid-July with about 13^m. (Comet Observers Forum)
M. Oates found the comet C/1996 J1 (Evans-Drinkwater) in 190 SOHO/LASCO-C3 images from Dec 21, 1996, to Jan 9, 1997, following a suggestion by J. Shanklin. The comet was then about 8^m. (Sungrazer Home Page)

08/14/2001

On July 28, 2001, the LONEOS program discovered an asteroidal object which turned out to be moving on a cometary orbit. Subsequent observations did not reveal any cometary activity. The asteroid 2001 OG₁₀₈ is in a Halley-type orbit with an inclination of about 80 degrees. It will pass its perihelion in March 2002, at about 0.99 AU. The now 18.5^m object may reach 14^m in April 2002 (an even more if any cometary activity starts). The orbital period is about 51 years. (MPEC 2001-P40, MPML)

08/11/2001

M. Kidger (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias) reports that comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) is still very active. According to CCD(-R) observations by R. Ferrando, P. Manteca, D. Rodriguez, and R. Ligustri two small photometric events starting around July 25.0, and 30.0 with amplitudes of about 0.4^m and 0.2^m, respectively, were detected. These events are small compared to the event of July 12, which had an amplitude of about 1.5^m and was easily observable visually. (IAUC 7679)

08/08/2001

SOHO's 343^rd comet was detected by T. Scarmato in delayed LASCO real-time images of August 05, 2001. C/2001 P1 (SOHO) is a member of the Kreutz group. (MPEC 2001-P22)

08/03/2001

According to the first and preliminary orbital elements comet C/2001 O2 (NEAT) passed its perihelion already in May 2000, at about 6.8 AU. (IAUC 7676, MPEC 2001-P01)