Tuesday, September 1, 2009

New comet discoveries: C/2009 Q5 (McNaught) & C/2009 Q4 (Boattini)

IAU Circular nr.9070, issued on 2009, Sep. 01, announces the discovery of a new comet by R. H. McNaught, named C/2009 Q5 (McNAUGHT). It was found on Aug. 31 in the course of the Siding Spring Survey with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope.

After posting on the Minor Planet Center's 'NEOCP' webpage, other observers have noted the cometary appearance of this 17magnitude object.

We have been able to confirm this object remotely, through the GRAS network, using a scope located in Mayhill (NM): on 2009, September 01.3, co-adding of 15 unfiltered exposures, 120 seconds each, obtained by means of a 0.25-m, f/3.4 reflector + CCD, shown a compact coma about 12 arcmin in diameter and a broad tail nearly 20" long in p.a. 255 deg.

Our image is available here:


This is an image of C/2009 Q5 by M. Jaeger:


The preliminary orbit for comet C/2009 Q5 (McNaught) indicates perihelion on Mar. 11, 2010, at about 1.6 AU: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/mpec/K09/K09R02.html

This is the 50th comet discovery for Robert McNaught.

Congratulations to Rob for this great achievement.

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IAU Circular nr.9069, issued on 2009, Aug. 31, announces the discovery of a new comet by A. Boattini, named C/2009 Q4 (BOATTINI). It was found on Aug. 26 in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey with the 0.68-m Schmidt telescope. Magnitude at the discovery 18.9.

The preliminary orbit for comet C/2009 Q4 (Boattini) indicates perihelion on Nov. 1, 2009, at about 1.5 AU: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/mpec/K09/K09Q84.html

This is comet discovery number 10 for Andrea Boattini.

by Ernesto Guido & Giovanni Sostero

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