New Comet!

New comet on the Southern Hemisphere

Grzegorz Pojmanski, Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory reports:

Using the ASAS3V instrument of The All Sky Automated Survey
(telephoto lens 180/2.8, diameter 65mm + CCD + Johnsons V filter,
3 minute exposures, pixel size 14.8 arcsec, rms astrometric accuracy:
4 arcsec) ASAS has discovered an apparently cometary
object on images taken on January, 1, 2006.
Object cannot be located in MPC/CBAT pages.

Observations:
DATE UT HJD RA (2000) DEC V
29/12/2005 00:45:17 (Dec 29.032) 2453733.5285 21:50:29 -69:40.6 13.20
01/01/2006 01:03:11 (Jan 01.044) 2453736.5407 21:40:28 -68:36.5 12.46
04/01/2006 00:46:26 (Jan 04.033) 2453739.5290 21:31:33 -67:31.2 12.00
04/01/2006 00:53:46 (Jan 04.038) 2453739.5341 21:31:33 -67:31.1 11.99
05/01/2006 00:52:27 (Jan 05.037) 2453740.5332 21:28:45 -67:08.8 11.92

FWHM of the coma is 63 arcsec;
Diameter of the ASAS-detected coma (largest contour) is 2 arcmin.



Images of the comet can be inspected on the WWW following the links:
www.astrouw.edu.pl/~gp/asas/asas.html -> Alert Service Page -> Comets
or directly on new comet's page:
www.astrouw.edu.pl/~gp/asas/asas_c2006.html

From the NEOCP orbit the following parabolic elements can be derived:

Orbital elements:
A/ASC0001
Perihelion 2006 Feb 20.882374 TT Constraint: e=1
Epoch 2006 Jan 7.0 TT = JDT 2453742.5 Find_Orb
q 0.525674 (2000.0) P Q
H 11.1 Peri. 352.89840 -0.87074357 -0.11962743
Node 208.49567 -0.38751323 -0.43018498
e 1.0 Incl. 91.32841 -0.30271953 0.89477939
From 10 observations 2006 Jan. 4-7; RMS error 0.864 arcseconds

Willl post further details when they become available!

Clear skies!

New Discovery!: Grzegorz Pojmanski (Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory) reports his discovery of a new comet on Jan. 01, and 04, 2006, in the course of the ASAS survey. He was able to detect further ASAS images of Dec. 29, 2005, and K. Cernis reported a possible comet in images of the SWAN instrument aboard the SOHO spacecraft that showed the same motion as the ASAS object on Dec 25, and 29, 2005, and Jan. 01, 2006. S. Roland (Montevideo) did also confirm the 12m comet. According to the first preliminary orbit comet C/2006 A1 (Pojmanski) will pass perihelion on Feb. 22, 2006, at about 0.57 AU. The comet will become visible for mid-European observers at the beginning of March, maybe as bright as 7m in the morning sky. Images of the second ASAS comet discovery can be found on their special alert page. (IAUC 8653, subscription required, IAUC 8654, subscription required)

WOW just plugged in the orbital elements and this could be big!. Looks like it will be best placed in early morning skies in early March. Could be around mag 6 at that time!! Lets wait for a more refined orbit before getting too excited.

Its about time we got a decent comet again! Its almost a year since we have seen anything worthwhile...