On Mar. 11, 2002, two amateur astronomers, the American D. Snyder and the Japanese S. Murakami, independently discovered a 10.5m bright comet near the border of the constellations Scutum and Aquila, close to M11. The comet showed a 3' coma with a faint condensation (IAUC 7850/52). It already passed perihelion on Feb. 22, decreasing in brightness during the following weeks.
Only 4 observations by 3 FGK-observers were received until the beginning of June. Taking into account additional 115 international observations the brightness evolution is best represented by the formula
implying a maximum brightness of 10.4m at discovery. The apparent coma diameter measured 2.5' at first and decreased to almost 1.5' until the first days of July. The absolute coma diameter remained quite constant at 150.000 km. The degree of condensation decreased slightly during the apparition from DC 3 to DC 2. Werner Hasubick did not succeed in finding the comet on Aug. 8/9 with a 44 cm Newtonian and therefore estimated it to be fainter than 14.0m.
Total Brightness and Coma diameter
Andreas Kammerer
