CANOPUS 98/06 - 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

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