Circular No. 5396
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Postal Address: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Telephone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)
TWX 710-320-6842 ASTROGRAM CAM     EASYLINK 62794505
MARSDEN or GREEN@CFA.BITNET    MARSDEN or GREEN@CFAPS2.SPAN
 
 
1991 WA
     R. H. McNaught reports the following measurements of a fast-
moving asteroidal object discovered by himself on a U.K. Schmidt
Telescope plate taken by M. A. Read and K. S. Russell (the Dec. 1-4
observations were obtained by McNaught with the Uppsala Southern
Schmidt telescope):
 
     1991 UT             R.A. (1950) Decl.        V     Observer
     Nov. 29.45312    1 59 14.93   -21 12 05.4   16     Read
     Dec.  1.42488    1 56 10.98   -14 58 48.0          McNaught
           1.55171    1 55 59.42   -14 36 29.9            "
           1.55775    1 55 59.03   -14 35 25.2            "
           2.49549    1 54 50.78   -11 56 59.7            "
           2.61539    1 54 41.53   -11 37 31.4            "
           4.44760    1 52 56.44   - 7 00 45.9            "
           4.45315    1 52 56.12   - 6 59 56.6            "
 
     Orbital elements from the above observations by G. V. Williams:
 
     T = 1991 Sept.26.426 ET          Peri. = 241.835
     e = 0.64254                      Node  =  66.089   1950.0
     q = 0.56389 AU                   Incl. =  39.673
       a =  1.57748 AU     n = 0.497458     P =   1.98 years
 
     1991 ET      R.A. (1950) Decl.     Delta      r       V
     Nov. 30     1 58.30    -19 23.7    0.260    1.160    16.1
     Dec.  5     1 52.50    - 5 44.9
          10     1 50.13    + 3 37.4    0.386    1.267    16.9
          15     1 49.90    +10 09.6
          20     1 51.17    +14 53.5    0.548    1.368    17.9
          25     1 53.56    +18 27.4
          30     1 56.83    +21 14.5    0.727    1.465    18.6
 
PERIODIC COMET SCHWASSMANN-WACHMANN 1
     H. Kosai, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, communi-
cates that M. Tsumura (Oishi Station) has observed an outburst of
this comet on a photograph taken Dec. 2.528 UT; the comet appeared
stellar, of mag 12-13, suggesting an early phase of outburst.  S.
Larson, University of Arizona, independently observed the outburst
on Dec. 4, noting a fan tail at p.a. about 100 deg; two 30-min
spectrograms (range 300-850 nm) show only continuum.
 
 
1991 December 4                                   Daniel W. E. Green