News - November 2005
2005 November 27
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New Discovery!:
R. Kowalski reports his discovery of a new comet on Nov. 25, 2005, in the course of the
Catalina Sky Survey. The
18m comet was confirmed by E. J. Christensen (Mt. Lemmon), J. G. Ries (McDonald
Observatory), and P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford). With prediscovery observations by NEAT
of Nov. 21, 2005, the first orbit for comet C/2005 W3 (Kowalski) shows perihelion
already on April 22, 2005, at about 2.7 AU. This is the 25th comet discovery by
Catalina.
(IAUC 8634, subscription required,
MPEC 2005-W72)
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With prediscovery observations by LINEAR of Nov. 03, 2005, the orbit for comet
C/2005 W2 (Christensen) was improved. The comet is of intermediate period with P of
about 83 years. Perihelion occurs on March 27, 2006, at about 3.3 AU.
(MPEC 2005-W73)
2005 November 21
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New Discovery!:
E. J. Christensen reports his discovery of a new comet on Nov. 20, 2005, in the course of the
Catalina Sky Survey. After
posting on the NEO Confirmation Page the cometary nature of the 17m object was
confirmed by several observers including P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford), J. McGaha (Tucson)
and J. Young (Table Mountain). The first orbit for comet C/2005 W2 (Christensen) shows
perihelion already on June 1, 2005, at about 3.2 AU. This is the 24th comet
discovery by Catalina.
(CBET 297, subscription required,
MPEC 2005-W24)
2005 November 18
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H. Su discovered a rather bright Marsden comet in SOHO/LASCO images of Nov. 16, and following.
C/2005 W1 (SOHO) is the 22nd member of the
Marsden group and might be identical with
C/2000 C3 (SOHO) as shown in a linkage by B. G. Marsden. This is SOHOs 1025th
official comet discovery.
(MPEC 2005-W07)
2005 November 05
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New Discovery!:
D. Tholen (University of Hawaii) reports the discovery of a new comet on Nov. 01, 2005,
by Fabrizio Bernardi with the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii telescope in the course of the
University Of Hawaii Asteroid Survey (UHAS). The preliminary orbit for the 20m
comet P/2005 V1 (Bernardi) shows perihelion already on Sep. 05, 2005, at about 2.4
AU. The period is about 16.4 years.
(IAUC 8627, subscription required,
MPEC 2005-V41)
2005 November 03
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Additional astrometry shows that comet 2005 T4 is of intermediate period with P of about
27 years. Comet P/2005 T4 (SWAN) is the first SOHO discovery that has been firmly
established as periodic with the help of ground-based observations.
(MPEC 2005-V22)