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(meteorobs) Don Machholz' Comet Comments for August 1997



Extracted from http://members.aol.com/cometcom/ ...

                    COMET COMMENTS FOR AUGUST 1997
                            By Don Machholz

A new comet has been recently discovered in the southern sky.
Meanwhile, Comet Hale-Bopp continues to dim in the southern sky.
Both comets will be briefly visible to many Northern Hemisphere
observers in a few months.
The new comet was discovered by Vello Tabur of Australia on July 2.
He used an 8-inch f/4.7 reflector to find the tenth magnitude object,
which was situated in the morning sky, far south of the sun and out
of view of Northern Hemisphere observers. It was Tabur who had made
the last visual discovery-nearly a year ago. Comet Tabur (C/1997 N1)
will appear in the evening sky for northern observers in early
September.
The solar-orbiting satellite SOHO has picked up five additional small
comets as they headed toward the sun. Most of the 17 comets found by
the satellite belong to the Kreutz Sungrazing Group, all were faint
and seen only by the satellite. Most disappeared as they rounded the
sun.

COMET HUNTING NOTES: With Tabur's find, six of the last seven
visually-discovered comets have been found south of the celestial
equator; and 14 of the last 17 visually-discovered comets have been
found in the morning sky.

 EPHEMERIDES

 C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp)
 Date(00UT)  R.A. (2000) Dec   El  Sky  Mag
 07-11       06h54.6m -05o16'  28o  M   3.9
 07-16       07h01.0m -07o05'  30o  M   4.1
 07-21       07h07.1m -08o55'  32o  M   4.3
 07-26       07h13.0m -10o45'  35o  M   4.4
 07-31       07h18.8m -12o36'  37o  M   4.6
 08-05       07h24.3m -14o28'  39o  M   4.7
 08-10       07h29.6m -16o21'  42o  M   4.9
 08-15       07h34.7m -18o16'  45o  M   5.0
 08-20       07h39.5m -20o13'  47o  M   5.1
 08-25       07h44.1m -22o11'  50o  M   5.3
 08-30       07h48.4m -24o11'  52o  M   5.4
 09-04       07h52.4m -26o12'  55o  M   5.5
 09-09       07h56.2m -28o15'  58o  M   5.6

 C/1997 N1 (Tabur)
 Date(00UT)  R.A. (2000) Dec   El  Sky  Mag
 07-11       05h49.7m -23o37'  51o  M   9.0
 07-16       06h27.9m -20o34'  46o  M   8.5
 07-21       07h05.0m -16o50'  40o  M   8.0
 07-26       07h40.1m -12o30'  34o  M   7.5
 07-31       08h12.7m -07o39'  27o  M   6.9
 08-05       08h42.8m -02o21'  20o  M   6.2
 08-10       09h10.9m +03o24'  12o  M   5.7
 08-15       09h37.7m +09o31'   5o  M   5.5
 08-20       10h04.2m +15o35'   4o  E   5.8
 08-25       10h31.1m +21o08'  11o  E   6.4
 08-30       10h59.0m +25o56'  18o  E   7.1
 09-04       11h28.5m +29o58'  24o  E   7.8
 09-09       11h59.7m +33o15'  30o  E   8.4

 ELEMENTS

 Object:            Hale-Bopp         Tabur
 Peri. Date:        1997 04 01.13800  1997 08 15.24722
 Peri. Dist (AU):   0.9141405 AU      0.3832189 AU
 Arg/Peri (2000):   130.58915 deg.    345.44824 deg.
 Asc. Node (2000):  282.47069 deg.    148.24000 deg
 Incl (2000):       089.42943 deg.    086.40198 deg
 Eccen:             0.9951172         1.0
 Orbital Period:    ~2500 years       Long Period?
 Ref:               MPC 29568         IAU Cir. 6694
 Epoch:             1997 06 01        1997 08 15
 Absol. Mag/"n":    -1.0/4.0          9.0/4.0

 CC228.WEB       07-08-97        Don Machholz    (916) 346-8963
 DonM353259@aol.com.
 Web Page: http://members.aol.com/cometcom/index.html

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