Circular No. 7980
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html
ISSN 0081-0304

S/2001 U 1
A new candidate for a satellite of Uranus, of mag R = 25.3-25.5, was found by M. Holman, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA); J. Kavelaars, now at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory; and D. Milisavljevic, McMaster University, with the 4-m reflector at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO) on 2001 Aug. 13. Kavelaars obtained confirmatory images with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Aug. 25. Following further measurements by B. Gladman, from images obtained by P. Nicholson and C. Dumas with the 5-m Hale reflector at Palomar on Sept. 21 and by J.-M. Petit with the European Southern Observatory 8.2-m UT3 telescope at Paranal on Nov. 15, B. G. Marsden, CfA, provided a prediction for the 2002 opposition that allowed Gladman to recover a candidate for the object on Paranal images obtained by P. Rousselot and O. Mousis on 2002 Sept. 5, after which Holman, with the help of T. Grav, confirmed the recovery on CTIO 4-m reflector images obtained on 2002 Aug. 13. Marsden established definitively an orbit with a = 0.057 AU, e = 0.21, i = 166 deg (to the ecliptic) and that H = 12.8. Full details of the astrometry and orbit calculation, as well as a current ephemeris, are provided on MPEC 2002-S64.

(C) Copyright 2002 CBAT
2002 September 30 - (7980) - Daniel W. E. Green