New Comet C/2020 H2 (Pruyne)

CBET 4761 & MPEC 2020-H220, issued on 2020, April 28, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~16.5) by Theodore A. Pruyne on four 30-s CCD exposures taken with the Catalina Sky Survey's 0.68-m Schmidt telescope. The new comet has been designated C/2020 H2 (PRUYNE).

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 55 unfiltered exposures, 10 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, April 27.4 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.6-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a diffuse coma about 1' arcmin in diameter.

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)

MPEC 2020-H220, assigns the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2020 H2: T 2020 Apr. 27.62; e= 1.0; Peri. =  26.76; q = 0.83;  Incl.= 125.04

by Ernesto Guido, Marco Rocchetto & Adriano Valvasori

New Comet P/2020 G1 (Pimentel)

CBET 4754 & MPEC 2020-H06, issued on 2020, April 17, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~15) by Eduardo Pimentel on CCD images taken by Jacques, Pimentel, and J. Barros with a 0.28-m f/2.2 astrograph of the "Southern Observatory for Near Earth Research" (SONEAR) at Oliveira, Brazil. The new comet has been designated P/2020 G1 (Pimentel).

 

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 7 unfiltered exposures, 24 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, April 15.4 from Q62 (iTelescope network) through a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + focal reducer, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 15" in diameter and a tail 20" long in PA 90.

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)

MPEC 2020-H06, assigns the following very preliminary elliptical elements to comet  P/2020 G1: T 2020 March 17.82; e= 0.87; Peri. =  208.93; q = 0.51;  Incl.= 18.67


by Ernesto Guido & Adriano Valvasori

New Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN)

CBET 4750 & 4752 & MPEC 2020-G94, issued on 2020, April 13, announce the discovery of a comet (total magnitude ~8.5) by M. Mattiazzo in the low-resolution public website hydrogen Lyman-alpha images obtained with the Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) camera on the Solar and Heliospheric Observer (SOHO) spacecraft.  The new comet has been designated C/2020 F8 (SWAN).

 

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage through the Telescope Live network.

Stacking of 3 unfiltered exposures, 30 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, April 11.4 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.6-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 5' in diameter and a tail 6' long in PA 220. Total magnitude 8.4.

Stacking of 3 unfiltered exposures, 120 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, April 11.7 from Q56 (Telescope Live, Australia) through a 0.1-m f/3.6 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 8' in diameter and a tail 25' long in PA 220.

Our confirmation images (click on it for a bigger version):

MPEC 2020-G94, assigns the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet  C/2020 F8: T 2020 May 27.59; e= 0.99; Peri. =  68.33; q = 0.42;  Incl.= 110.69

Below you can see a graph generated using the software Orbitas and showing the C/2020 F8 (SWAN) predicted magnitude (in red) versus the maximum height (for Northern Hemisphere). Click on the image for a bigger version. Preliminar orbit has the comet 0.4 AU from Sun with a peak magnitude at about 3 mag. at the end of May 2020! (as always with comets, the future magnitudes reported here are only indicative).  Elongation will start to decrease at the beginning of May 2020 and it will be about 20 degrees at the peak magnitude. Maximum height will be very bad for Northern Hemisphere at peak that is around 3 degrees from the horizon. Then the comet will appears in the morning sky at 11.5 mag in August and it will be observable in good condition after that while fading.  

by Ernesto Guido, Marco Rocchetto & Adriano Valvasori

New Comet C/2020 F5 (MASTER)

CBET 4746 & MPEC 2020-G73, issued on 2020, April 08, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~15.8) in images taken with the "Mobile Astronomical System of the Telescope-Robots" (MASTER) auto-detection system (0.40-m f/2.5 reflector) near San Juan, Argentina. Additional pre-discovery observations from Mar. 17.0 UT (mag 15.8-15.9), Mar. 22.0 (mag 15.8), and Mar. 23.0 (mag 15.7-15.8) were found on images taken with the MASTER 0.40-m reflector at the South African Astronomical Observatory (Sutherland). The new comet has been designated C/2020 F5 (MASTER).

 

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 22 unfiltered exposures, 60 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, April 05.7 from Q62 (iTelescope network) through a 0.43-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 10" in diameter and a tail 30" long in PA 290.

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)

MPEC 2020-G73, assigns the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2020 F5: T 2021 Mar 22.93; e= 1.0; Peri. =  310.76; q = 4.33;  Incl.= 51.70

by Ernesto Guido & Adriano Valvasori

New Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

CBET 4740 & MPEC 2020-G05, issued on 2020, April 01, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~17) in infrared images obtained with the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (or NEOWISE; formerly the WISE earth-orbitingsatellite; cf. CBET 4225). The new comet has been designated C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE).  

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 14 unfiltered exposures, 60 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, March 31.5 from Q62 (iTelescope network) through a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + focal reducer, shows that this object is a comet with a diffuse coma about 1 arcmin in diameter and a tail 20" long in PA 115.

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)

 

MPEC 2020-G05, assigns the following preliminary orbital elements to comet  C/2020 F3: T 2020 July 3.54; e= 0.99; Peri. =  37.60; q = 0.29;  Incl.= 128.95

There is a possibility that this comet will be visible in the field of the SOHO C3 instrument towards the end of June 2020 (although it may be too weak or very close to the limit magnitude of this instrument which is about +8). When the orbit will be more defined it will be possible to confirm or exclude this hypothesis. 

by Ernesto Guido & Adriano Valvasori

New Comet C/2020 F2 (ATLAS)

CBET 4739 & MPEC 2020-G04, issued on 2020, April 01, announce the discovery of a comet by R. Wainscoat on CCD images obtained on Mar. 22.6 UT with the Pan-STARRS1 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien reflector at Haleakala, which he then noticed (via posting at the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage) was apparently identical with an apparently asteroidal object (magnitude ~19) discovered on CCD images taken the previous night with a 0.5-m f/2 Schmidt reflector at Haleakala, Hawaii, in the course of the "Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System" (ATLAS) search program. The new comet has been designated C/2020 F2 (ATLAS).

I performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage. Stacking of 15 unfiltered exposures, 120-sec each, obtained remotely, from Telescope Live (El Sauce, Chile) on 2020, March 25.3, through 0.6-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object appears slightly diffuse compared to the nearby field stars of similar brightness.

My confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)

The following orbital elements by S. Nakano, Sumoto, Japan, are from 119 observations spanning 2019 May 27-2020 Apr. 1 (mean residual 0".30); prediscovery images were found by R. Weryk (F51); the corresponding original and future values of 1/a are +0.000016 and -0.000016 AU**-1, respectively.  The comet passed 2.89 AU from Saturn on 2018 Mar. 12 UT.

     Epoch = 2022 June 30.0 TT
     T = 2022 July 15.84933 TT        Peri. =  48.37394
     e = 1.0054516                    Node  = 250.27242 2000.0
     q = 8.8153702 AU                 Incl. = 163.58534


by Ernesto Guido