C/2006OF2＜Broughton彗星＞

＊　発 見 事 情　＊ The comet was discovered via CCD back on July 17, 2006 by John Broughton, an amateur astronomer who resides and maintains a private observatory in Reedy Creek, Queensland. He has conducted his own survey program for several years, during which time he has discovered several hundred asteroids, among these being the "potentially hazardous" near-Earth asteroids 2004 GA1 and 2006 LD1. (I'll also add that several of the names he has given to his discovered asteroids are names that I, as a rock 'n roll music fan, can appreciate.) John has also discovered one earlier comet, a faint periodic object he found in October 2005 which was too faint for me to observe. At the time of his discovery Comet C/2006 OF2 did not appear cometary (hence its "asteroidal" designation), but its obvious long-period orbit suggested that it very likely is a comet, and in late September 2006 Carl Hergenrother utilized the 1.54-meter telescope at Catalina in Arizona to obtain CCD images which revealed its cometary nature.

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