THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 205 1988 Oct 04 20.07UT. 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMET MACHHOLZ (1988j) M.Jager, Austria reports that a photo taken on Oct 3.76UT shows the comet at approx mag 12, much fainter than predicted. O.C.St.Cyr, High Altitude Observatory reports failure to detect it Sept 17.88- 18.83UT with the NASA Solar Maximum Mission Spacecraft to about magnitude 4. Does anyone else have any results? 1988 NF N.James(MAG90713) provides further predictions: Offsets from: Y Cas R.A. = 00h 00m.8, Dec. +55 24' (1950) Date E.T. R.A. (1950) Dec. R r Elong star->ast h m o ' (AU) (AU) o ' P.A. 1988 Oct 1.00 23 57.26 +58 35.0 0.607 1.432 124.1 193 352 1988 Oct 2.00 23 57.59 +58 22.0 0.606 1.434 124.6 180 352 1988 Oct 3.00 23 57.93 +58 8.0 0.604 1.436 125.1 165 352 1988 Oct 4.00 23 58.30 +57 53.1 0.603 1.438 125.7 150 352 1988 Oct 5.00 23 58.68 +57 37.3 0.602 1.440 126.2 134 353 1988 Oct 6.00 23 59.08 +57 20.4 0.601 1.442 126.8 117 353 1988 Oct 7.00 23 59.51 +57 2.6 0.600 1.444 127.3 99 354 1988 Oct 8.00 23 59.96 +56 43.9 0.599 1.446 127.9 80 355 1988 Oct 9.00 0 0.43 +56 24.3 0.598 1.448 128.4 60 357 1988 Oct 10.00 0 0.93 +56 3.7 0.597 1.450 129.0 40 2 1988 Oct 11.00 0 1.45 +55 42.2 0.596 1.453 129.6 19 17 1988 Oct 12.00 0 2.01 +55 19.8 0.596 1.455 130.1 11 112 1988 Oct 13.00 0 2.59 +54 56.5 0.595 1.457 130.7 32 150 1988 Oct 14.00 0 3.21 +54 32.4 0.595 1.460 131.2 56 158 1988 Oct 15.00 0 3.85 +54 7.4 0.595 1.462 131.8 81 161 1988 Oct 16.00 0 4.52 +53 41.6 0.594 1.465 132.3 108 162 1988 Oct 17.00 0 5.23 +53 15.0 0.594 1.467 132.9 135 163 Offsets from: SS Cas R.A. = 00h 07m.0, Dec. +55 17' Date E.T. R.A. (1950) Dec. R r Elong star->ast h m o ' (AU) (AU) o ' P.A. 1988 Oct 15.00 0 3.85 +54 7.4 0.595 1.462 131.8 172 351 1988 Oct 16.00 0 4.52 +53 41.6 0.594 1.465 132.3 146 351 1988 Oct 17.00 0 5.23 +53 15.0 0.594 1.467 132.9 119 352 1988 Oct 18.00 0 5.96 +52 47.6 0.594 1.470 133.4 91 354 1988 Oct 19.00 0 6.73 +52 19.4 0.595 1.472 133.9 62 358 1988 Oct 20.00 0 7.52 +51 50.6 0.595 1.475 134.5 34 8 1988 Oct 21.00 0 8.35 +51 21.0 0.595 1.478 135.0 13 74 1988 Oct 22.00 0 9.21 +50 50.8 0.596 1.480 135.5 34 142 1988 Oct 23.00 0 10.10 +50 19.9 0.597 1.483 135.9 65 153 1988 Oct 24.00 0 11.01 +49 48.4 0.598 1.486 136.4 97 156 1988 Oct 25.00 0 11.96 +49 16.3 0.599 1.489 136.9 130 158 1988 Oct 26.00 0 12.93 +48 43.7 0.600 1.491 137.3 164 159 1988 Oct 27.00 0 13.93 +48 10.6 0.601 1.494 137.7 199 160 1988 Oct 28.00 0 14.96 +47 37.0 0.603 1.497 138.1 235 160 1988 Oct 29.00 0 16.01 +47 3.0 0.605 1.500 138.4 270 160 COSMOS 1900 Frank Weissferdt(MAG36440) e-mails: Peter Bluhm from northern Germany observed Cosmos 1900 in its penultimate revolution passing over Denmark from WNW - ESE on Saturday Oct.1. 20:36 UT. Magnitude was reported as 2 - 3, the optical appearance was mostly steady. According to ESOC Cosmos 1900 decayed one revolution later between 22:15 and 22:30 UT over East Africa or the Indian Ocean. My own calculations with up to date elements showed that the satellite deorbited somewhere between 18 deg.N / 20 deg. E and 36 deg. S / 46 deg. E. The nuclear reactor was placed in an orbit 720 km above Earth on Sep. 30, 21:00 UT. 1988 SM Rob McNaught(07:GED001) e-mails that this is the designation for the F.M.O. reported on E-204. It has been recovered at UKST but is a mag 17 object. Elements can be supplied to anyone interested. Guy M Hurst