Reports from Geisei Observatory<May 25, 2000>

• C/1999 S4(LINEAR)

  2000UT        RA            decl          m1
  May 24.77813  2h02m00s.93  +31° 00'58".5  12.7

The comet is now visible low in the sky in morning twilight. The 60cm telescope managed to capture the comet in spite of interfering tree branches and thin clouds. In the 20cm refractor it was not visible. In the photograph a slight tail is visible at PA 300° but the comet does not have an appearance of a great comet. It may fade to magnitude 5-6 in July.

	60cm reflector

	Enlarged photograph The tail is seen in the upper right.

• The nova in Aquila
The nova is the bright star indicated by an arrow and the star lower right of it is an 8.75-magnitude star. Initially both had similar magnitudes, but at 2 am on May 25 the nova was clearly fainter at 9.85. Color photos of the nova will be shown in the next report.