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(meteorobs) BRIGHT NEW COMET LYNN
The following was transmitted by Roger Sinnott of Sky & Telescope. . .
-- joe rao
NEW COMET 1999 N2
On July 13th, Australian amateur Daniel W. Lynn of Kinglake
West, Victoria, discovered an 8th-magnitude comet moving
rapidly northeast through the constellation Hydra. He was
using 10 x 50 binoculars. The comet is very low in the western
evening sky and most readily visible from the Southern
Hemisphere, but it seems likely that it will become better
placed for Northern Hemisphere observers during the
next week or so. The discovery was confirmed by V. F.
de Assis Neto in Brazil and also by F. B. Zoltowski in
Australia.
Zoltowski detected a short tail on CCD images obtained
with his 30-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. His measurements
give the comet's position and direction of motion as
follows:
Date: 1999 July 14 at 9h UT
R.A. 9h 52.1m
Dec. -14d 29'
Motion: 3.68 deg/day toward p.a. 53 deg (northeast)
No orbit has yet been calculated.
The announcement was made on IAU Circular 7222, issued today
by the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, International
Astronomical Union, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. The above information has been
adapted from that circular, which has further details of
the discovery (http://cfa-www.harvarddot edu/iau/cbat.html).
The editors at Sky & Telescope magazine are interested in
receiving reports and images of this comet for possible
publication. Sky & Telescope, P.O. Box 9111, Belmont,
Mass. 02478, U.S.A.
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