THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 204 1988 Oct 02 09.04UT. Telecom Gold 72:MAG60138 Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16, Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP, England. Telephone:(0256)471074.Int:+44256471074 Telex:265871(MONREF G) Quote"72:MAG60138 ATT G.HURST"in FIRST line. ------------------------------------------------------------------- FAST MOVING ASTEROID Rob McNaught, Australia, e-mails:(received Oct 1 19.53UT) "Malcolm Hartley of the UKST has found a mag 16.5 FMO on a plate taken for Saturn "Trojans". Due to the ambiguity in direction, and the tracked plate, the possible motions are not simply opposite. Mid trail is 1988 Sep 29.43801 RA 22 08 02.9 Dec -12 23 15 Motion 1.226 deg/day in PA 202.7 or 1.172 " " 019.2 A follow up plate on the Saturn "Trojans" was taken last night, so the southern motion is covered. This plate will be developed today. However coverage of the northern direction would be valuable, as this will carry it off the UKST plate. Search ephemeris UT RA (1950) Dec RA (1950) Dec Oct 2.0 22 12.1 -09 33 22 03.1 -15 17 3.0 22 13.7 -08 26 22 01.1 -16 24 4.0 22 15.2 -07 20 21 59.2 -17 32 " COSMOS 1900 We understand that this object has passed over the Earth with no confirmed reports of debris landing. It is believed to have burned out in the atmosphere over Western Africa. According to TASS the nuclear reactor has been placed in a higher orbit. Did anyone observe the satellite in its final passage over Europe? YALE CATALOGUE Paul Sutherland (MAG31707) e-mails: "I wonder whether the following information might be of interest to other computer users: The Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars has recently been put in the public domain, which means it is available for copying and distributing freely. It is currently available from the Public Domain Software Library in Britain (along with some other interesting looking freebie programs). Unfortunately, few things are really free. One does have to pay the copying and handling fees charged by the organisation. Together with postage, they calculate it would cost 24 pounds to put the 2 megabytes of information onto 4 disks for my CP/M machine. However, we would be free to copy and distribute as many copies of the catalogue ourselves as we wish. The only rule is that no one must make a profit out of PD software. So if enough people would like a copy of the catalogue, and we share the cost of our master copy, it could work out quite cheap for each individual. Michael Maunder and Alan Drummond have already expressed interest to me in this software. Michael even has the facility to transfer between different disk sizes and formats. Would anyone else with an interest or comments please like to E-mail me? The Yale Catalogue holds data about more than 9000 bright stars in simple ASCII format. A simple Basic database program is provided to access the program. This program would not suit everyone's machine, but would hopefully be fairly easy to adapt". Editor: Could interested readers reply direct to Paul with a copy to the Editor. 1988 NF Further to the note on E-203, N.James (MAG90713) e-mails: Ephemeris for 1988NF Offsets from: V And R.A. = 00h 47m.4, Dec. +35 23' E 1988 July 18.00ET. w 94.12 ) e 0.36007 w1 254.48 ) 1950.0 a 2.18771A.U. i 22.13 ) Date E.T. R.A. (1950) Dec. R r Elong star->ast h m o ' (AU) (AU) o ' P.A. 1988 Nov 12.00 0 33.25 +38 42.6 0.648 1.545 140.4 259 320 1988 Nov 13.00 0 34.64 +38 6.7 0.652 1.549 140.3 223 317 1988 Nov 14.00 0 36.04 +37 31.1 0.657 1.552 140.2 186 314 1988 Nov 15.00 0 37.47 +36 55.7 0.662 1.556 140.0 151 308 1988 Nov 16.00 0 38.91 +36 20.6 0.667 1.559 139.8 118 299 1988 Nov 17.00 0 40.36 +35 45.8 0.673 1.563 139.5 89 285 1988 Nov 18.00 0 41.83 +35 11.3 0.678 1.566 139.3 69 260 1988 Nov 19.00 0 43.31 +34 37.2 0.684 1.570 139.0 68 228 1988 Nov 20.00 0 44.81 +34 3.4 0.690 1.574 138.6 86 202 1988 Nov 21.00 0 46.32 +33 30.1 0.696 1.577 138.3 114 187 1988 Nov 22.00 0 47.85 +32 57.2 0.703 1.581 137.9 146 178 1988 Nov 23.00 0 49.39 +32 24.8 0.710 1.585 137.5 180 172 1988 Nov 24.00 0 50.93 +31 52.8 0.716 1.588 137.0 215 168 1988 Nov 25.00 0 52.49 +31 21.4 0.723 1.592 136.6 250 165 1988 Nov 26.00 0 54.06 +30 50.4 0.731 1.596 136.1 286 163 1988 Nov 27.00 0 55.64 +30 20.0 0.738 1.600 135.6 321 161 1988 Nov 28.00 0 57.23 +29 50.1 0.746 1.603 135.1 356 159 1988 Nov 29.00 0 58.82 +29 20.8 0.753 1.607 134.6 392 158 1988 Nov 30.00 1 0.43 +28 52.0 0.761 1.611 134.0 427 156 1988 Dec 1.00 1 2.05 +28 23.8 0.770 1.615 133.5 461 155 Rob McNaught has e-mailed similar results. Hans Bengtsson also reports the asteroid will pass near Y Cas (RA 00h00m47s DEC +55 24.1',1950) on Oct 11 and near SS Cas (RA 00h07m00s DEC +51 17.3',1950) on Oct 21. Can anyone carry out similar calculations to the above as it may then be possible to undertake a complete run using the three sequences? TA INDEX J.Danielsson is now handing over the running of the Swedish e-mail link to A.Linquist. The mailbox MAG96041 is no longer in use and the new box number for Mr.Linquist will be announced shortly. We welcome this continued valuable exchange between British and Swedish astronomers. Guy M Hurst