[IAUC] IAUC 8933: C/2008 B1-B4, C/2008 C3-C5,, C/2008 E4; C/2008 E1 [25139-2008/05-R1]

[IAUC mailing list]

                                                  Circular No. 8933
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS en CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT en CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)


COMETS C/2008 B1-B4, C/2008 C3-C5, AND C/2008 E4 (SOHO)
     Further to IAUC 8932, additional apparent comets have been
found on SOHO website images; all are Kreutz sungrazers except for
C/2008 C3 (no known group) and C/2008 E4 (Kracht group).  In the
tabulated column below for instrument, an asterisk (*) indicates
that astrometry was also measured and reduced from HI1 images
aboard the STEREO-A spacecraft.  C/2008 B1 was tiny, stellar, and
faint (mag about 7).  C/2008 B2 reached mag about 6 in H1A and C3
images and was just barely visible with a thin, faint tail in C2
images.  C/2008 B3, C/2008 B4, and C/2008 C4 were very faint (mag
7.5), the first and third being slightly diffuse and the second
being quite diffuse.  C/2008 C3 was stellar in appearance and
brightened slowly and gradually, reaching mag about 7 as it left
the field-of-view.  C/2008 C5 was also stellar in appearance,
reaching mag about 6.5.
     C/2008 E4 is described by K. Battams as "typically [for a
Kracht-group object] small, stellar, and faint (maybe peaking at
mag 7 as it entered the C2 coronagraph), fading fast as it neared
the sun".  R. Kracht suggested the identity of the Kracht group
comets C/2002 Q8 and C/2008 E4 on the basis of the MPEC 2002-Q46
measurements of the former and his own measurements of the latter;
Kracht gave the previous perihelion date T = 1997 Feb. 14.9 but was
unable to locate the comet on C2 images from that time.  Linked
orbital elements (P = 5.52 yr) for 2002 and 2008 by B. G. Marsden
appear on MPEC 2008-F32.

 Comet        2008 UT       R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2008 B1    Jan. 26.221   20 46.1  -21 03   C3     HS   2008-G59
 C/2008 B2         27.138   21 00.0  -21 43   C3/2*  AK   2008-G59
 C/2008 B3         28.696   20 57.9  -19 43   C3     HS   2008-G59
 C/2008 B4         29.904   21 03.8  -19 33   C3     BZ   2008-G59
 C/2008 C3    Feb.  3.146   21 02.9  -18 12   C2     RK   2008-G60
 C/2008 C4          3.821   21 22.3  -18 16   C3*    HS   2008-G60
 C/2008 C5          5.738   21 33.9  -17 30   C3*    AK   2008-G60
 C/2008 E4    Mar.  3.254   23 02.6  - 5 18   C2     HS   2008-F32


COMET C/2008 E1 (CATALINA)
     Prediscovery astrometry (MPEC 2008-F36) shows this comet (IAUC
8923) to be of intermediate period; elements from MPEC 2008-G33:
epoch 2008 Aug. 2.0 TT, T = 2008 Aug. 11.284 TT, q = 4.82971 AU, e
= 0.54759, Peri. = 269.910 deg, Node. = 189.035 deg, i = 35.038 deg
(equinox 2000.0), P = 34.9 years.

                      (C) Copyright 2008 CBAT
2008 April 10                  (8933)            Daniel W. E. Green