THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 793 1993 Nov 28 12.06UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England. Telephone/FAX(0256)471074 Int:+44256471074 TELEX: 9312111261 Answerback: TA G TELECOM GOLD: 10074:MIK2885 GMH at UK.AC.RUTHERFORD.STARLINK.ASTROPHYSICS STARLINK: RLSAC::GMH GMH at UK.AC.CAM.ASTRONOMY.STARLINK STARLINK: CAVAD::GMH ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMET MUELLER (1993s) Jean Mueller reports her discovery of a comet on a plate taken with the 1.2-m Oschin Schmidt Telescope in the course of the second Palomar Sky Survey. The object is diffuse, of mag 17.5-18, with a pronounced tail about 80" long toward p.a. 270o. Confirmation was obtained via a second plate taken by J. D. Mendenhall and Mueller. The following positions are measurements by Mueller of the centres of the short, diffuse trails: 1993 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 Nov. 20.41910 6 58 55.65 +20 35 20.0 21.36111 6 58 42.36 +20 37 31.9 IAUC 5891 PERIODIC COMET SHOEMAKER-LEVY 9 (1993e) J. V. Scotti and T. Metcalfe, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, have provided accurate absolute astrometry for nine of the nuclei of this comet from CCD images obtained with the 0.91-m Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak generally on nine nights during Mar. 30-July 19. The orbit for the brightest nucleus (No.7) follows: Epoch = 1994 May 8.0 TT T = 1994 Apr. 1.3226 TT Peri. = 355.1307 e = 0.206613 Node = 220.9658 2000.0 q = 5.382476 AU Incl. = 5.7864 a = 6.784178 AU n = 0.0557774 P = 17.670 years The new orbit computations demonstrate that it is absolutely certain that all of the individual nuclei observed by Spacewatch will pass some 0.0002 AU from the centre of Jupiter (the radius of which is 0.0005 AU) in July 1994, the computed collision times being as follows: nucleus 17, July 18.7 UT; 15, 19.1; 14, 19.6; 12, 20.2; 11, 20.9; 7, 21.6; 6, 22.1; 5, 22.7; 1, 23.2. On July 17.0 this portion of the train will extend 14 arcmin in p.a. 61-241 deg. The ephemeris below is for nucleus 7: 1993/94 R. A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. Phase m1 Nov. 29 13 58.25 -12 58.8 6.185 5.405 34.8 6.0 14.3 Dec. 9 14 05.83 -13 38.6 6.081 5.403 43.0 7.1 14.2 19 14 12.99 -14 15.2 5.960 5.400 51.3 8.2 14.2 29 14 19.59 -14 48.1 5.825 5.398 59.8 9.1 14.1 IAUC 5892/5893 DI URSAE MAJORIS Gary Poyner, Birmingham, UK reports an outburst of this UG star. His visual estimates follow together with confirmation obtained by Tony Vanmunster of Belgium: 1993 Nov 12.049UT, 15.1 Poyner 15.053 15.2 Poyner 18.990 15.2 Vanmunster 20.004 [14.7 Poyner (not seen) KV ANDROMEDAE Further to the notes by Taichi Kato of Japan on E792, Nick James reports that he has photographed the star in outburst as follows: 1993 Nov 19.80UT 1416(2)v(3)1494 = 14.5 (Kodak Tech Pan).