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A Search for Encke's Comet in Ancient Chinese Records: A Progress Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

F. L. Whipple  and
S. E. Hamid
F. L. Whipple
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
S. E. Hamid
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.

Abstract

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The catalog by Ho Peng Yoke lists ancient Chinese observations of 581 transient astronomical objects of which some 300 might conceivably have been P/Encke, between the years − 156 and + 1600. Using the Gauss-Hill method it was possible to establish roughly the plane of the orbit and the direction of perihelion for P/Encke over this interval of time. All but about 40 of the objects could be eliminated by comparing the observed locations with possible locations of P/Encke. Several more could be eliminated on the basis of their calculated magnitudes and general observability. Large uncertainties in the non-Newtonian motion as yet prevent our certain identification of P/Encke among the remaining possibilities.

Type
Part III/Motions of the Short-Period Comets
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 45: The Motion, Evolution of Orbits and Origin of Comets , 1972 , pp. 152 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1972 

References

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