Comet P/2002 X2 (NEAT)

K. J. Lawrence reports the discovery of a comet by the NEAT team (which now includes also R. Bambery, E. Helin, S. Pravdo, M. Hicks, and R. Thicksten) from CCD images taken with the 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar (discovery observation below). Following posting on the NEO Confirmation Page, J. Ticha and M. Tichy found the comet to show a 7" coma and a 14" tail in p.a. 45 deg on Klet images taken on Dec. 8.8 UT. P. Holvorcem that the co- addition of three 120-s exposures taken with the Tenagra II telescope at Nogales, AZ, on Dec. 8.20 shows a coma with diameter about 7" and a tail about 14" long in p.a. about 55 deg. F. B. Zoltowski, Edgewood, NM, notes that CCD images taken with a 0.3-m reflector on Dec. 9.15 shows the comet as diffuse with a 15" coma diameter and a possible faint tail in p.a. 240 deg. 2002 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 Dec. 7.17100 2 18 17.91 - 7 46 37.0 18.4 Further astrometry (including prediscovery observations by LONEOS on Oct. 5 and Dec. 6, and by NEAT on Nov. 5) and the following orbital elements by B. G. Marsden appear on MPEC 2002-X51. T = 2003 Mar. 29.5651 TT Peri. = 356.0279 e = 0.373384 Node = 78.1561 2000.0 q = 2.528633 AU Incl. = 25.3531 a = 4.035377 AU n = 0.1215844 P = 8.106 years