New Comet C/2021 J1 (Maury-Attard)
CBET 4972 & MPEC 2021-L11, issued on 2021, June 02, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~19.0) on CCD images taken by A. Maury and G. Attard on May 09.3 UT with the 0.28-m f/2.2 Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt astrograph at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile in the course of the MAP (W94) survey. The new comet has been designated C/2021 J1 (Maury-Attard). This is the first amateur comet discovery of 2021. It is also the first comet ever discovered using the synthetic tracking technique (using TYCHO software).
Our confirmation images (click on the images for a bigger version; made with TYCHO software by D. Parrott)
Stacking of 27 unfiltered exposures, 30 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2021, May 16.3 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 7" arcsecond in diameter (Observers E. Guido, M. Rocchetto, E. Bryssinck, M. Fulle, G. Milani, C. Nassef, G. Savini, A. Valvasori).
MPEC 2021-L11 , assigns the following orbital elements to comet C/2021 J1 (Maury-Attard): T 2021 Feb 19.45; e= 0.93; Peri. = 147.31; q = 1.74 ; Incl.= 92.71
Congrats to Alain Maury, Georges Attard & Daniel Parrott!
by Ernesto Guido