• C/1999 S4(LINEAR) Due to rainy weather, observation was interrupted. Although it was near full moon, I came to the observatory at about 2 am to check LINEAR. The stars were barely visible because of moonlight and haze. However, at 3 am I found the vaguely shining elongated image of LINEAR in the 20cm finderscope. It had clearly a much longer tail than on June 7 and the total magnitude was estimated to be 7.9. This magnitude matches quite well the calculation made by the magnitude formula devised by Mr. Hirohisa Sato at Sukagawa. m1 = 7.77 + 5 log Δ + 12.49 log γ It will brighten at least to the 4th magnitude in late July. The photograph was taken by the 60cm telescope at 3:30 am on June 15 with a 7-minute exposure. |
C/1999 S4(LINEAR)
60cm reflector at Geisei Observatory
Copyright (C) 2000 Tsutomu Seki.