Wednesday, April 6, 2011

New Comet: C/2011 G1 (MCNAUGHT)

IAUC nr.9204, issued on 2011, Apr. 06, announced the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 17.3) by R. H. McNaught on CCD images obtained on Apr. 05, 2011 with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring . The new comet has been designated C/2011 G1 (MCNAUGHT).

After posting on the Minor Planet Center's 'NEOCP' webpage, this object has been found by several CCD astrometrists to show cometary appearance. We performed some follow-up measurements of this object while it was still listed in the NEO-CP, on 2011 Apr. 06.5, remotely from the Tzec Maun Observatory (near Moorook, Australia) through a 0.15-m, f/7.3 refractor + CCD.

Stacking of 40 unfiltered exposures, 60-sec each, shows that this object a coma nearly 8-arcsec in diameter with a sharp central condensation, short tail about 15-arcsec long toward PA 15.

Our confirming image (click for a bigger version):




MPEC 2011-G49 assignes the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2011 G1: T = 2011 Sep. 24.39; Peri. = 13.234; q = 1.81 AU; Incl. = 161.45; Node = 158.43


According to COCD webpage, this is the 59th comet discovery for LINEAR Survey.

by Giovanni Sostero & Ernesto Guido

3 comments:

Bob King said...

I really appreciate how quickly you share new information with comet observers. This is a very nice blog. Thanks for you excellent efforts!

Erik Bryssinck said...

congratulations with this cofirmation ! not easy to catch this object with a 0.15 refractor. well done! thanks for sharing the information.
Erik

Team said...

Dear @Bob and @Erik, thanks for your kind words, greatly appreciated!!

ciao,
Ernesto