Astron. Astrophys. 333, 746-752 (1998)

Early recovery of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle ^*

O.R. Hainaut ^{1, 2}, K.J. Meech ¹, H. Boehnhardt ² and R.M. West <sup>3

1</sup> Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
² European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago, Chile
³ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany

Received 14 October 1997 / Accepted 5 January 1998

Abstract

We present recovery observations of the parent of the Leonid meteor stream - comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle using the Keck II telescope. At recovery, the comet was at  AU, with , and there was no indication of coma or activity. Pre- and post-recovery observations from 6 observing runs (1994-1997 June) are presented. From these measurements we estimate that the nucleus radius is  = 1.8 0.2 km with a nucleus axis ratio greater than 1.5. As of 6/97 (r  = 3.5 AU), the comet activity had not yet started.

Key words: astrometry comets: individual: 55P/Tempel-Tuttle meteors, meteoroids

* Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile, and University of Hawaii and Keck observatories on Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Send offprint requests to: O.R. Hainaut, ESO-Chile

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Observations
  • 2.1. 1994 May 10-11; r = 10.8 AU (NTT)
  • 2.2. 1995 February 3-4; r = 9.5 AU (NTT)
  • 2.3. 1996 May 12; r = 6.7 AU (ESO/MPI 2.2-m)
  • 2.4. 1997 March; r = 4.5 AU
  • 2.5. 1997 April 15,17; r = 4.08 AU (UH 2.2m)
  • 2.6. 1997 June 18; r = 3.5 AU (UH 2.2m)
• 3. Data reduction
  • 3.1. Image processing
  • 3.2. Photometric calibration
  • 3.3. Astrometric calibration
• 4. Discussion
  • 4.1. Absolute magnitude and nuclear diameter
  • 4.2. Cometary activity
  • 4.3. Future plans
• 5. Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• References

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1998

Online publication: April 20, 1998
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