173P/Mueller 5 | ||
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Past, Present, and Future Orbits by Kazuo Kinoshita | ||
![]() Copyright © 1993-2000 by the California Institute of Technology
In the course of the Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, the 122-cm Oschin Schmidt Telescope at Palomar Observatory (California, USA) accidently photographed this comet on 1992 September 25.49. The arrow points to the diffuse image of the comet. The trail was originally found by Maik Meyer (Germany) while searching for prediscovery images of comets. This image was obtained through SkyMorph at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Discovery J. Mueller (Palomar Observatory, California, USA) discovered this comet on a photographic plate exposed on 1993 November 20.42, using the 122-cm Oschin Schmidt Telescope in the course of the second Palomar Sky Survey. The comet appeared as a short, diffuse trail of magnitude 17.5–18. Mueller said the comet was diffuse, with a "pronounced tail" extending about 80" in PA 270 degrees. J. D. Mendenhall and Mueller confirmed the discovery on a second photographic plate exposed using the same telescope on November 21.36. An independent confirmation was made by D. D. Balam and J. B. Tatum (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada). They obtained four images of the comet from November 23.40 to November 23.42, using the 182-cm reflector and a CCD camera. In 2008, M. Meyer found a prediscovery image of this comet on a plate exposed during the second Palomar Sky Survey on 1992 September 25.49. The magnitude was estimated as 17.9. Historical Highlights
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