[BAA Comets] another amateur comet discovery

[Shanklin, Jonathan D.]

2018 Y1 (Iwamoto)
Masayuki Iwamoto (Awa, Tokushima, Japan) discovered another comet in images taken on December 18.84 with a 10-cm f/4.0 Pentax SDUF II telephoto lens and a Canon EOS 6D camera. The comet was around 13th magnitude with a well condensed coma. It had been posted on the PCCP as IF032. [CBET 4588, MPEC 2018-Y52, 2018 December 20] The very preliminary orbit suggests that the comet might have been discoverable by a southern hemisphere survey telescope earlier in the year. It then passed through solar conjunction and has just emerged into the morning sky. The comet is probably approaching perihelion in late January at 1.1 au and may then pass 0.2 au from the Earth in early February when it could be 6th magnitude. The preliminary orbit is based on an arc of only two days and should be regarded as very provisional. JPL give the 1-sigma uncertainty in the date of perihelion as 110 days and in q as 1.4 au.  It may become visible from the UK in mid January, but will be a morning object until its close approach.



Regards,

Jonathan Shanklin




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