Comet P/2012 S5 = P/1997 C1 (Gehrels)

Discovery

Originally discovered at mag 18 with a condensation and diameter 7", along with a fuzzy tail 0'.5 long in p.a. 280 deg, on 1997 Feb. 1 by Tom Gehrels on CCD images taken with the Spacewatch 0.9-m Spacewatch telescope; announced on IAU Circular No. 6549 (see also IAU Circulars 6550, 6562).

As announced on CBET 3248, G. V. Williams, Minor Planet Center, has identified observations of comet P/1997 C1 in incidental astrometry submitted to the MPC on 2012 Sept. 25 (observations obtained by A. D. Grauer with the Mount Lemmon 1.5-m reflector) and Oct. 8 (observations obtained by R. S. McMillan with the Spacewatch 0.9-m f/3 reflector + CCD mosaic). The indicated correction to the prediction by B. G. Marsden on MPC 69910 was Delta(T) = -0.26 day.

Orbit

The following orbital elements by G. V. Williams are from 162 observations spanning 1997 Feb. 1-2012 Oct. 8 (mean residual 0".7). An ephemeris and revised 1996 orbital elements appear on Minor Planet Electronic Circular 2012-T24.


                    Epoch = 2013 July  7.0 TT
     T = 2013 July  7.99372 TT        Peri. = 210.93931
     e = 0.4749514                    Node  = 225.28500 2000.0
     q = 3.6016592 AU                 Incl. =   2.85500
       a =  6.8596682 AU   n = 0.05485919   P =  17.97 years

An ephemeris (based on above elements) is available here.

Light Curve

Observations

Photometry

Photometric observations of this comet from the ICQ archive are available here.

Astrometry

Astrometric observations of this comet from the Minor Planet Center archive are available here.

Links

A list of published articles/papers related to this comet from the Astrophysics Data System are available here.

Central Bureau for Astro. Tel.	Cometary Science Archive	International Comet Quarterly
Minor Planet Center	Origins/Harvard	EPS/Harvard