381P/LINEAR-Spacewatch (0381P)

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Type: Periodic Perihelion date: 27 September 2019 Perihelion distance (q): 2.3 Aphelion distance (Q) : 12.0 Period (years): 19.0 Eccentricity (e): 0.68 Inclination (i): 28.4 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve PK00S040 = 381P Tom Gehrels reported his discovery of a faint (20th magnitude) comet on 2 October 2000 in images taken with the Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak, noting it to have a 4" tail in p.a. 170 deg. T. B. Spahr, Minor Planet Center, linked it to an asteroidal object observed on 23 and 26 September reported earlier by LINEAR and then found LINEAR observations made on 1 September. At the request of Gehrels, P. Massey obtained images of the object in subarcsecond seeing with the 4-m Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak on 3 October, showing the comet to have a fan-shaped structure 4" long spanning p.a. 0-80 deg. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 26-Aug-19 18.84 0.05 18.4 0.2 20-Sep-19 18.97 0.10 18.7 0.2 27-Sep-19 19.37 0.09 18.9 0.2