[meteorite-list] New Comet Heading Sunward (Comet C/2004 R2 ASAS)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Sep 14 17:42:43 2004
Message-ID: <200409142142.OAA10973_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

NEW COMET HEADING SUNWARD
Roger W. Sinnott
Sky & Telescope
September 10, 2004

Grzegorz Pojmanski (Warsaw Astronomical Observatory, Poland) has
found an 11th-magnitude comet a few degrees south of Sirius in the
predawn sky. He snared it remotely using a remarkably small
instrument: a 70-millimeter-aperture lens (focal length 200 mm)
and CCD camera of the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) in Las
Campanas, Chile.

The discovery announcement on IAU Circular 8402 includes the
preliminary orbital elements by Brian G. Marsden, director of the
Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These show that
Comet ASAS (C/2004 R2) will pass fairly close to the Sun -- both in
the sky and literally -- during the coming weeks. It reaches
perihelion on October 7th, well inside the orbit of Mercury and
just 0.11 astronomical unit from the Sun. For a week or two around
that time, the only way to see it will be via the Internet on
images taken by the SOHO spacecraft
(http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html)
as the comet glides just 1.2 degrees north of the Sun's center.

Until the end of September, the comet should be visible in
ordinary telescopes mainly from the Southern Hemisphere (see the
ephemeris below). If it survives perihelion, it will enter the
evening sky for skywatchers north of the equator. But because
this is not an intrinsically large comet, it could go "poof" in
the Sun's heat. Similar objects studied by comet expert John
Bortle have done just that.

This ASAS success comes just two months after the discovery of
Nova Scorpii 2004 using the same equipment. For more about the
highly automated survey, see Dennis di Cicco's article in SKY &
TELESCOPE for October 2002, page 18.

The ephemeris below, based on Marsden's elements, gives the
comet's right ascension and declination at 0 hours Universal
Time on each date, followed by its distances from the Earth
(Delta) and Sun (r) in astronomical units. Then are listed its
elongation from the Sun in degrees, predicted visual magnitude,
the constellation it is in, and optimum viewing latitude. (If
the numbers in the table don't line up properly, switch to a
fixed-space font like Courier.)


Roger W. Sinnott
Senior Editor
SKY & TELESCOPE


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                   Comet ASAS (C/2004 R2)

 2004 RA (2000) Dec Delta r Elong Mag Const OpLat
(0h UT) h m o ' (au) (au) o
                                                                
Sep 10 7 46.8 -21 42 0.883 0.913 57 10.9 Pup 30S
Sep 11 7 56.6 -21 56 0.874 0.889 56 10.8 Pup 30S
Sep 12 8 06.6 -22 08 0.866 0.865 54 10.7 Pup 31S
Sep 13 8 16.8 -22 17 0.859 0.840 53 10.6 Pup 31S
Sep 14 8 27.3 -22 24 0.853 0.815 51 10.5 Pup 32S
Sep 15 8 38.0 -22 28 0.849 0.790 50 10.4 Pyx 32S
Sep 16 8 48.8 -22 28 0.846 0.765 48 10.3 Pyx 33S
Sep 17 8 59.7 -22 26 0.844 0.739 46 10.1 Pyx 33S
Sep 18 9 10.8 -22 20 0.844 0.712 44 10.0 Hya 34S
Sep 19 9 21.9 -22 11 0.845 0.686 42 9.9 Hya 34S
Sep 20 9 33.0 -21 58 0.847 0.659 41 9.8 Hya 35S
Sep 21 9 44.2 -21 41 0.851 0.631 39 9.7 Hya 35S
Sep 22 9 55.3 -21 21 0.856 0.603 37 9.5 Hya 36S
Sep 23 10 06.4 -20 56 0.862 0.575 35 9.4 Hya 36S
Sep 24 10 17.4 -20 28 0.871 0.546 33 9.2 Hya 37S
Sep 25 10 28.3 -19 56 0.880 0.516 31 9.1 Hya 37S
Sep 26 10 39.1 -19 21 0.892 0.486 29 8.9 Hya 37S
Sep 27 10 49.7 -18 41 0.904 0.455 27 8.7 Hya 37S
Sep 28 11 00.3 -17 58 0.919 0.424 25 8.5 Crt 38S
Sep 29 11 10.7 -17 10 0.935 0.391 23 8.3 Crt 38S
Sep 30 11 21.0 -16 19 0.952 0.358 21 8.0 Crt 38S
Oct 1 11 31.2 -15 22 0.971 0.324 19 7.8 Crt 37S
Oct 2 11 41.5 -14 20 0.992 0.289 17 7.4 Crt 37S
Oct 3 11 51.9 -13 12 1.014 0.254 14 7.1 Crt --
Oct 4 12 02.5 -11 56 1.038 0.218 12 6.6 Crv --
Oct 5 12 13.5 -10 30 1.062 0.182 9.5 6.1 Vir --
Oct 6 12 25.4 -08 51 1.086 0.149 6.7 5.5 Vir --
Oct 7 12 38.4 -06 58 1.104 0.123 3.5 4.9 Vir --
Oct 8 12 52.8 -04 55 1.111 0.114 1.2 4.6 Vir --
Oct 9 13 07.6 -03 01 1.102 0.126 3.9 5.0 Vir --
Oct 10 13 21.6 -01 28 1.083 0.153 7.1 5.6 Vir --
Oct 11 13 34.7 -00 15 1.059 0.187 9.8 6.2 Vir --
Oct 12 13 47.3 +00 43 1.036 0.223 12 6.7 Vir --
Oct 13 13 59.4 +01 31 1.014 0.259 15 7.1 Vir --
Oct 14 14 11.3 +02 12 0.993 0.294 17 7.5 Vir 38N
Oct 15 14 23.0 +02 46 0.975 0.329 19 7.8 Vir 36N
Oct 16 14 34.7 +03 15 0.958 0.363 21 8.1 Vir 35N
Oct 17 14 46.3 +03 41 0.944 0.396 23 8.4 Vir 34N
Oct 18 14 57.9 +04 03 0.932 0.428 25 8.6 Vir 33N
Oct 19 15 09.5 +04 22 0.922 0.459 27 8.8 Vir 32N
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Received on Tue 14 Sep 2004 05:42:39 PM PDT