Mike's SOHO Comet Hunt

Non-Sungrazing Comets

These comets are quite rare, about 1 in 12 of the comets found with SOHO are of the non-sungrazing type. Some may well hit the Sun or get destroyed by the corona, but some may get away and continue on it's orbit. This type of comet includes all comets except the Kreutz Sungrazers.

COMET C/2000 J2 (SOHO) SOHO-112
IAUC 7418 (2000 May. 9)
MPEC 2000-J32 (2000 May. 9)

A very faint comet found in C2 images, brightened from V = 7.8 on May 7.254 UT to 7.1 on May 7.368, but had faded to V = 8.3 on May 7.452, and it was not seen in the C3 instrument. This is not a Kreutz sungrazer.


COMET C/1999 J6 (SOHO) SOHO-109
IAUC 7386 (2000 Mar. 24)
MPEC 2000-F30 (2000 Mar. 24)

Found on the evening of March 21 2000 while searching archive data from the LASCO C3 instrument on FITS images taken on May 11 1999. The comet was seen moving away from the Sun, getting brighter then fading, it could be followed on the May 12th images as well. Doug Biesecker also located the comet on C2 frames on the 10th.


COMET C/2000 C5 (SOHO) SOHO-103
IAUC 7364 (2000 Feb. 12)
MPEC 2000-C53 (2000 Feb. 12)
More details

My first real comet discovery on Feb. 07 found on SOHO C2 images of Feb. 07. This is the fourth comet found within a few days that are possibly related to each other.


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Last modified January 17, 2005