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COMET C/2020 U3 (Rankin)

Photometric data obtained from FOCAS-II software

COD B96

OBS BRIXIIS Observatory

CATALOG: Gaia DR2 - BAND: G

                                   10x10  20x20  30x30  40x40  50x50  60x60   SNR   SB   COD

COMET         UTC                    +/-    +/-    +/-    +/-    +/-    +/-     N  FWHM  CAT

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                                                                     AFRHO         LOG

COMET         UTC                   DELTA    r    BOX "   MAG   RSR    CM    +/-  AFRHO  OBS

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FoCAs 3.66

www.astrosurf.com/cometas-obs

es.groups.yahoo.com/group/Cometas_Obs

Af(rho) data according the CARA-approach is available via request to CARA-coordinator

http://cara.uai.it

MPEC 2020-U254 : COMET C/2020 U3 (Rankin)

D. Rankin reports the discovery of a comet in exposures taken Oct. 22 UT by Mt. Lemmon Survey (G96).  He reported a very condensed 5" coma and a straight 7" tail in position angle 95 deg.  R. Weryk found prediscovery observations going back to Sept. 7 and additional prediscovery astrometry was found in the isolated tracklet file.  

Additional reports of cometary features are as follows:

OC   Date        Reporter           Coma    Tail    PA          Exposures

I52  2020-10-22  G. J. Leonard      3"        8"    110           4x75s

B96  2020-10-22  E. Bryssinck       6x8"            308          36x120s

Z08  2020-10-23  E. Bryssinck       6"                           12x120s

H06  2020-10-23  H. Sato            6"        5"     90          12x120s

After the comet was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, R.R. Weryk (Institute for Astronomy, university of Hawaii) identified numerous past single-night, previously unlinked observations of this object over seven different nights in the MPC's "isolated tracklet file" (which is accessible publicly) going back to observations obtained with the Pan-STARRS1 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien reflector at Haleakala on July 21.  Weryk also looked at numerous Pan-STARRS1 and Pan-STARRS2 images of the comet to look for possible cometary activity; four 45-s w-band Pan-STARRS1 images from July 21.5 UT show no coma and no tail, with the comet's size 1".0 (full-width-at-half-maximum in 0".9 seeing), and likewise on Sept. 22.3.  Pan-STARRS1 images on Oct. 14.24-14.26 in highly variable seeing are inconclusive     

 ....   E. Bryssinck, Kruibeke, Belgium, writes that thirty-six stacked 120-s exposures taken on Oct. 22.8 UT with a 0.4-m f/3.8 reflector show a central condensation with an elongated coma of size 6" x 8" (elongated in p.a. 308 degrees) with no tail; the red magnitude was 19.7 in an aperture of radius 5".    Bryssinck adds that twelve luminance-filtered 120-s CCD exposures taken remotely by M. Rocchetto, E. Guido, M. Fulle, G. Milani, C. Nassef, G. Savini, A. Valvasori and himself, using a "Telescope Live" 0.7-m f/6 reflector at Oria, Almeria, Spain, on Oct. 23.95 show a central condensation with an elongated coma of size 6" x 8" (toward p.a. 247 deg) with magnitude 20.1 in an aperture of radius 5"......

The comet passed 2.01 AU from Saturn on 2018 Mar. 21 UT and 3.23 AU from Jupiter on 2019 Dec. 27.

Last updated: 2020-10-31