A&A 417, 1159-1164 (2004)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20035658
Post-perihelion observations of comet 1P/Halley
V: r
= 28.1 AU
O. R. Hainaut1, A. Delsanti2, K. J. Meech3 and R. M. West4
1 European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile
2 Observatoire de Paris-Meudon - LESIA, 5 Place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France
e-mail: Audrey.Delsanti@obspm.fr
3 Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai`i, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
e-mail: meech@ifa.hawaii.edu
4 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2, 85748 Garching-bei-München, Germany
e-mail: rwest@eso.org
(Received 11 November 2003 / Accepted 18 December 2003 )
Abstract
Deep CCD observations have been performed simultaneously with the three 8.2 m Very Large Telescopes at Paranal, in the direction
of comet 1P/Halley, on March 6-8, 2003. The comet, at
heliocentric distance
r=28.1 AU, was convincingly detected (at
S/N=8) on a composite of 32 284 s exposure, as a point-source located 1.4
'' from the expected position. The object is also visible (at the
S/N=3-5 level) on independent per-night or per-instrument composites,
confirming the reality of the object, and the match of the observed motion over 3 consecutive nights with the predicted motion
of 1P/Halley guarantees that this cannot be another Solar System object. The magnitude of the object,
R=28.22
0.13, is compatible with the average cross-section of the bare nucleus.
Key words: comets: individual: 1P/Halley
Offprint request: O. Hainaut, ohainaut@eso.org
© ESO 2004