IAUC Circular No. 8969, published on 2008, Sept.4, informs that Gordon Garrad discovered a comet in the southern constellation of Grus, named C/2008 R1 (GARRADD). This object has been found on 2008, Sept. 2.5 through the 0.5-m schmidt at the Siding Spring observatory (Australia).
We performed some follow-up of this object remotely, from the Grove Creek-Skylive Observatory (Trunkey, Australia) on 2008, Sept. 2.7, by means of a 0.35-m, f/6.7 reflector + CCD.Our stacking of 24 unfiltered exposures, 120 seconds each, showed a tiny coma nearly 8 arcsec in diameter, elongated toward PA30 deg (details on image):
http://tinyurl.com/5rpan4
According to the preliminary orbital solution published on M.P.E.C. 2008-R22, this comet moves along a parabolic orbit, with i= 19 deg, and q= 1.7AU. Perihelium will be reached on November 2008. For te rest of this year it will mostly be a southern object, and the maximum magnitude is not expeted to be higher than 18.Updated ephemerids are available at the Minor Planet center website:
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2008R1.html
by Paul Camilleri, Giovanni Sostero and Ernesto Guido
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