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

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.

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.

Images

Photometry

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

Astrometry

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