Comet SOHO

 

A bright comet has been discovered by the SOHO satellite in the vicinity of the sun. Tim Cooper, director of the ASSA comet section, reports the comet was estimated at about mag 3.8 around the 20th May, in the morning sky.

At the time of writing the comet has moved into the evening sky and is not far from the sun, in Orion. Tim reports that the comet has a long, thin dust tail which he measured at about 2 degrees. From a dark remote site the tail was estimated at about 10 degrees.

SOHO is moving in a South-Easterly direction, so it will be moving away from the sun and might be easier to spot, were it not for the fact that it is also getting fainter as it moves away from the sun.

Below is the ephemeris for Comet SOHO. Further information on Comet SOHO is available from

http://medicine.wustl.edu/~kronkg/current_comets.html

 

COMET SOHO - Ephemeris

The following ephemeris is at intervals of five days

Date TT R. A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. Phase m1 m2
1998 06 01 06 28.51 -15 29.9 0.933 0.775 46.7 72.1 6.7
1998 06 06 06 52.52 -21 38.4 1.005 0.895 52.6 64.2 7.5
1998 06 11 07 14.37 -26 37.0 1.086 1.010 57.3 57.8 8.2
1998 06 16 07 34.56 -30 41.3 1.174 1.119 60.9 52.5 8.8
1998 06 21 07 53.44 -34 04.4 1.266 1.224 63.8 48.2 9.4
1998 06 26 08 11.25 -36 56.1 1.360 1.325 65.9 44.5 9.9
1998 07 01 08 28.18 -39 23.9 1.457 1.422 67.5 41.3 10.3
1998 07 06 08 44.38 -41 33.3 1.555 1.517 68.7 38.6 10.8
1998 07 11 08 59.95 -43 28.2 1.654 1.610 69.5 36.3 11.2
1998 07 16 09 14.99 -45 11.8 1.754 1.700 70.0 34.2 11.5
1998 07 21 09 29.60 -46 46.3 1.854 1.788 70.2 32.3 11.9
1998 07 26 09 43.83 -48 13.7 1.955 1.874 70.3 30.7 12.2
1998 07 31 09 57.73 -49 35.4 2.055 1.958 70.1 29.2 12.5