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Comet 161P/HARTLEY-IRAS - ( = 1983 V1 )

Discovery 1983: (IAUC 3894 )

M. Hartley (Siding Spring Observatory, New South Wales, Austrralia found the trail of this comet on a phtograpfic plate exposed on 1983 Nov. 4.47. He gave the magnitude as 15 and the position 21h53.6m , -21°18’ (2000). Before a confirmation plate could be obtained, J. Davies and S.F.Green ‘university of Leicester, England) reported on November 11-the that the Infrared Astronomy Satelite (IRAS) had imaged a comet on November 10.35. They estimated the magnitude 15.5.  K.S.Russel (Siding Spring Observatory) was asked by the Central Bureau of Telegrams(Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) to try and confirm the IRAS comet, at which time Russel reported the Hartley’s comet and the IRAS comet might be identical. Russel exposed a plate on Nov. 14, trhough clouds and in bright moonlight, but nothing was found. Russel finally managed to confirm the comet and the suggested link on November 23.44. He estimated the magnitude as 15.5. Comet Hartley-IRAS  is a Halley-type comet in a retrograde orbit with an orbital period of 21.47 years.

Recovery 2004:

Robert H. McNaught recovered Comet Hartley–IRAS on 3 November 2004, ahead of its next perihelion on 20 June 2005. The comet was subsequently given an official numerical designation (161P) by the Minor Planet Center on 24 November 2004. It reached magnitude 11.3 on 16 June 2005.

2-de: Recovery 2026:  CBET 5718

 This comet has apparently been recovered independently by at least two observers.  CCD images taken remotely on June 23.8 UT by H. Sato (Bunkyo-ku,  Tokyo, Japan) using a 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph located at Siding Spring, NSW, Australia, show a strongly condensed coma 10" in diameter; the magnitude was  18.6 as measured within a circular aperture of radius 5".4.  M. Masek  (Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences) reports his recovery of  this comet as a stellar object on CCD images obtained on June 25.4 UT with  the 0.30-m FRAM telescope at Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina (cf. CBETs 5658, 5710).