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COMET P/2006 HR30 (SIDING SPRING)

Reports from two groups of observers indicate that 2006 HR30, reported as asteroidal when discovered by the Siding Spring Survey (discovery observation  cf. MPEC 2006-H40), appears cometary. A co-addition of three 10-s V -band exposures, obtained on July 29.3 UT by S. C. Lowry and A. Fitzsimmons (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen’s University, Belfast) with the 3.5-m New Technology Telescope at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), La Silla, show a coma extending to 500.5 in p.a. 31o. Observations by M. Hicks and K. Lawrence (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) on Aug. 3 with the Palomar 5-m Hale telescope show a faint coma extending ≈ 1000 from the ‘nucleus’ in both the R-band and long-slit spectral images.