My SOHO comets

272 comets and a new group of comets discovered to date

and 4 Solwind comets and 3 STEREO comets and two periodic SOHO comets and one precovery
and the first detection of nongravitational forces for a SOHO comet

• Table of my SOHO comets
• Discovery of the Kracht group
• Tracks of the Kracht group comets in C2
• Tracks of the Meyer group comets in C2
• The Marsden group
• Tracks of the Marsden group comets in C2
• Images of the Marsden group comets
• Tracks of the Kreutz group comets in C3
• The brightest Kreutz group comets in C2
• About the "Kracht 2" group
• Tracks of the "Kracht 2" group comets in C2
• C/2000 V4, C/2001 T5 and SOHO-2291
• Orbit links found by me
• 2000 PG3 and the Machholz Complex
• C/2008 Y12 and the Machholz Complex
• Periodic SOHO comets
• The Machholz Complex revisited

Kracht group links:
New families of comets
Fragmentation Tree of Kracht Group
SOHO comets
Origin of the Marsden and Kracht Groups

NEWS

06.06.2024 The orbital solution for Eryk's comet from May 22 showed a Marsden group comet with low inclination.

03.06.2024 Jiangao Ruan reported a non-grou or /Marsden omet in realtime C2 images.

24.05.2024 Hanjie Tan reported a non-group comet in C2 images of 1999 June 01, a Kracht group comet in C2 images of 2006 April 10,
a Kracht group comet in C2 images of 2008 May 16 and a Marsden group comet in C2 images of 2018 July 24.

22.05.2024 Eryk Bannach reported a non-group or Kracht II comet in realtime C2 images.

25.03.2024 Hanjie Tan found a Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images. This is SOHO-5000!

22.03.2024 Jiangao Ruan found a Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images.

24.02.2024 Hanjie Tan found a Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images.

17.02.2024 Hanjie Tan found a Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images.

09.12.2023 Jiangao Ruan found the returning Marsden group comet P/2002 R4 in realtime C2 images.

17.11.2023 Hanjie Tan found a Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images.

08.08.2023 Jiangao Ruan found a Marsden group comet in archival C2 images of 2000 February 29.

29.09.2022 Zhuoyang Chen found a Kracht group comet in archival C2 images of 2002 September 15.
This is the eighth Kracht comet found in images from July to September 2002.

07.08.2022 Hanjie Tan found two Kracht 2 group comets in archival C2 images of 2014 March 05 and 07.
Now we have four fragments in 2014 and also four fragments in 2019.

29.06.2022 Hanjie Tan has found three Marsden and three Kracht group comets in archival C2 images
They were confitmed today by Karl Battams:

Soho# Date/Time of Post Discoverer Tel Group Images of...
=====================================================================
4448 May17,22 00:22:39 H.Tan C2 Marsden Dec05,15
4459 Jun11,22 04:57:29 H.Tan C2 Kracht Sep05,20
4460 Jun11,22 05:00:39 H.Tan C2 Kracht Sep08,20
4464 May08,22 16:31:39 H.Tan C2 Kracht Jan02,22
4466 Jun25,22 16:01:47 H.Tan C2 Marsden Jun13,11
4471 Jun25,22 16:06:53 H.Tan C2 Marsden Feb20,18
4472 Jun25,22 16:10:04 H.Tan C2 Marsden Jun27,18

22.10.2020 Worachate Boonplod found a Kracht group comet in C3 images of October 22 19:54 - 21:18 UTC.
This is the return of P/2002 S11 = 2008 R7 = SOHO-2802.

01.09.2020 Peter Berret had posted the detection of a Kracht II group comet on 03.07.2020, which he has found in archival C2 images of 02.03.2015.
This comet has now been confirmed by Karl Battams as SOHO-4043 KrachtII?.
The comet does not move on the tracks of the Kracht II group comets, so this is a Non group comet.

25.08.2020 Worachate Boonplod found a Kracht group comet in C2 images of August 25 05:12 - 07:24 UTC.

01.05.2020 The Non-group comet from 04.01.2020 was designated SOHO-3952 and listed as a Kracht group comet by Karl Battams. The Kracht group comet from 18.01.2020 became SOHO-3943.

18.01.2020 Peter Berrett posted the detection of a Marsden group comet in archival C2 images of 2014 June 06 07:12 - 08:24 UTC. The comet was confirmed by Worachate Boonplod as a
Kracht group comet as it moved on the tracks of the Kracht group comets.

04.01.2020 Peter Berrett posted the detection of a Kracht group comet in archival C2 images of 2019 February 25. The comet was confirmed by Worachate Boonplod as a Non-group comet
as it moved too far away from the tracks of the Kracht group comets in late February.

20.12.2019 I found a Kracht II group comet in C2 images of December 19 07:00 - 07:36 UTC when it entered C2. This is another fragment of C/2002 R5. It left the C2 fov at 19:24 UTC.

13.12.2019 Worachate Boonplod found a bright Kracht II group comet in C2 images of December 13. This seems to be the main fragment of C/2002 R5. Before and after it crossed the C2 field of view it was visible in C3.

06.12.2019 Worachate Boonplod found a Kracht II group comet in C2 images of December 06. This is a fragment of C/2002 R5.

28.11.2019 I found a Kracht II group comet in C2 images of November 27 11:24 - 12:48 UTC. This is a fragment of C/2002 R5. It had entered the C2 fov already at 01:24 UTC.

05.11.2019 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of November 04 14:36 - 15:48 UTC

23.10.2019 I found a bright non-group comet in C2 images of October 22 07:24 - 08:00 UTC

24.04.2019 I found a small Kracht group comet in realtime C2 images of 04:00 - 04:48 UTC

05.01.2019 I found a small Meyer group comet in realtime C2 images of 05:48 - 06:48 UTC

07.12.2018 I found a rather small non-group comet in realtime C2 images of 18:48 - 20:24 UTC

06.12.2018 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 18:12 - 19:12 UTC, but it was already reported in C3

26.11.2018 I found a very small, slow-moving non-group comet in realtime C2 images of 17:12 - 18:12 UTC, but this was the planet Mercury.

11.08.2018 I found a small Marsden group comet in delayed C2 images of August 09 09:12 - 10:12 UTC.

22.07.2018 I found a small non-group comet in realtime C2 images of 09:48 - 10:24 UTC.Its path looks similar to that of the Meyer group comets.

24.06.2018 I found a small Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images of 06:24 - 07:00 UTC.

21.05.2018 I found a small non-group comet in realtime C2 imagesof 18:36 -19:12 UTC.

16.05.2018 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images of May 14 entering C2 at 11:00 UTC..

11.05.2018 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images of May 09 19:12 - 20:36 UTC.

03.05.2018 I found a small Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images 15:24 - 16:12 UTC while testing the software of my new PC.

05.09.2017 I found a bright Meyer group comet in archival C2 images of 2017 February 22.

26.08.2017 I have downloaded the C2 images from August 24 to look at the non-group comet of that day. I found the non-group but also a Meyer group comet, which was not yet reported.
This is my 256th SOHO comet. I searched then through the C2 images of August 25 and 26 and found a Marsden group comet of August 26.

18.08.2016 P/2000 O3 = 2005 W4 = 2011 E1 = 2016 N5 (SOHO) has been numbered as 342P/SOHO (MPC 100621)

10.08.2016 The MPC published measurements and orbits for COMET P/2000 O3 = 2005 W4 = 2011 E1 = 2016 N5 (SOHO) on MPEC 2016-P77 .

01.07.2016 Worachate Boonplod found the returning Kracht group comet P/2000 O3 = 2005 W4 = 2011 E1 in LASCO C2 images.

21.12.2015 Masanori Uchina found the 44th Kracht group comet in C2 images from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC.

04.06.2015 Three periodic SOHO comets have been numbered (MPC 93678):

321P/2001 D1 = 1997 J6 = 2004 X7 = 2008 S2 = 2012 M2 (SOHO)
322P/1999 R1 = 2003 R5 = 2007 R5 = 2011 R4 (SOHO)
323P/1999 X3 = 2004 E2 = 2008 K10 = 2012 Q2 (SOHO)

25.05.2015 I have made a new page about the periodic SOHO comets.

24.05.2015 P/1999 R1 has been imaged by ESO VLT UT1 on March 22 with mag 23 at opposition 1.2 AU from the earth.

21.05.2015 I have updated my page about P/1999 X3 = P/2004 E2 =P/ 2008 K10 = P/2012 Q2.

03.05.2015 I have updated my page about P/2001 D1 = P/1997 J6 = P/2004 X7 = P/2008 S2 = P/2012 M2.

12.09.2014 Zhijian Xu found the 43th Kracht group comet in realtime C3 images. This is the return of C/2008 R7.

26.08.2014 Zhijian Xu found the 42th Kracht group comet in realtime C2 images.

25.07.2014 Arkadiusz Kubczak found the 41th Kracht group comet in C2 images from July 24.

07.03.2014 Zhijian Xu found the returns of C/2008 L6 and L7 in realtime C2 images, seven days earlier than expected from a pure gravitational linkage with C/2002 R5.

09.11.2013 Zhijian Xu found the 40th Kracht group comet in realtime C2 images.

26.05.2013 The Marsden group comet P/2002 R1 = 2008 A3 has returned in LASCO C2 images of May 25.

20.06.2012 C/1999 X = C/2004 X3 = C/2008 K10 has returned in SOHO LASCO C2 images of 2012 August 20

30.06.2012 C/1997 J6 = C/2000 D1 = C/2004 X7 = C/2008 S2 has returned in SOHO LASCO C2 images of 2012 June 30.

03.03.2012 I found an orbit for SOHO-2071 (discovered 2011 May 19 by M. Uchina and not yet officially measured) which is located between the orbits of 96P/Machholz and the Marsden group.

19.02.2012 I could measure two positions of the new Kracht group comet and link them with those of C/2001 R8.

09.02.2012 I have made a page about C/2008 Y12 and the Machholz Complex

30.01.2012 Hidetaka Sato has imaged the new STEREO comet (P/2013 A3) from Mayhill (H06) at mag 15. Karl Battams wrote this story about the new period comet.

23.01.2012 I could link the observations (meausured by Man-To Hui) of a new STEREO-B comet with those of C/2003 T12 SOHO with an orbital period of 4.1 years. The linkage is here.

18.01.2012 Sergei Schmalz found the 39th Kracht group comet in C2 images of January 18.

02.12.2011 Terry Lovejoy found a new comet in his earth-based images, which look like a Kreutz group comet (MPEC 2011-X16). Perihelion will be December 16.0.

06.09.2011 Bo Zhou found the returning comet C/199R1 = 2003 R5 = 2007 R5 in LASCO C2 images.

19.07.2011 I could link the new Marsden comet with C/2000 C4 and C/2005 W1. The linkage is here.

17.07.2011 Alan Watson found a Marsden group comet in C3 images.

30.06.2011 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images of June 29 03:12 - 04:00 UTC.

10.06.2011 I found a Marsden group comet in delayed C2 images of 07:36 - 10:00 UTC.

25.05.2011 I found a Meyer Group comet in delayed C2 images of 04:00 - 05:00 UTC.

18.05.2011 I found a Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 21:36 - 22:00 UTC.

13.03.2011 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images of March 12 11:24 - 15:12 UTC.

09.03.2011 I found a Kracht group comet in C3 images of 09:42 - 10:42 UTC. This is my 250th SOHO comet.
This is the return of C/2000 O3 = 2005 W4 (orbital period 5.3 years).

23.01.2011 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images of January 22 12:00 - 12:48 UTC. It is visible in many additional images.

30.12.2010 Asteroid 234761 (2002 OU32) has been named Rainerkracht mainly for my work with SOHO comets:

(234761) Rainerkracht = 2002 OU32
     Rainer Kracht (b. 1948) is a German amateur astronomer who discovered
more than two hundred comets on images taken by the SOHO spacecraft.  The
Kracht group comets are named after him.  Kracht also discovered minor planets.
The name was suggested by H. Bill.

16.12.2010 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 16:12 - 17:00 UTC.

21.11.2010 I found a Kreutz group comet in C2 images of November 20 00:48 - 02:24 UTC.

18.11.2010 Brian Marsden passed away today at the age of 73 following a prolonged illness. This is a great loss for all who knew him and the astronomy of the small bodies of the solar system..

14.11.2010 I found a Meyer group comet in C2 images of November 12 11:48 - 12:48 UTC.

23.10.2010 Rob Matson found a Kracht group comet in C3 images. He could follow it from 04:42 - 21:30 UTC. It was also visible in C2 images from October 22/23 22:36 - 02:24 UTC.

29.07.2010 I found a Meyer group comet in C2 images of 06:54 - 10:06 UTC.

20.06.2010 I found a Marsden group comet in C2 images of 19:27 - 20:59 UTC.

08.06.2010 I found a small Meyer group comet in realtime C2 images of 13:32 - 14:06 UTC. That's my 250th comet (4 Solwind, 3 STEREO, 243 SOHO).

08.05.2010 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 21:30 - 21:54 UTC.

31.12.2009 The small trailing fragment from December 20 was decided to be too close to the brighter comet to count as a separate comet.

24.12.2009 I found a small fragment trailing close to a Kreutz group comet, which Masanori Uchina had found an hour earlier in delayed C2 images of December 20 01:54 - 04:30 UTC. Later I found a small (mag 7 - 8) Kracht group comet in delayed C2 images of December 20 09:08 - 11:54 UTC.

04.12.2009 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 16:30 - 17:06 UTC.

13.11.2009 Until now, I got twelve designations for new asteroids from NEAT images but three were later identified with already known ones.The current count is here.

06.11.2009 I found another five new asteroids in NEAT images of 2002: K02QD6B, K02EG3K, K02Tc5Q, K02S74A, K02H18L. I have started to use a remotely controlled telescope (Sierra Stars Observatory, G68), which has about the same limiting magnitude as the NEAT images to search for new "realtime" asteroids.

19.10.2009 Just two weeks later I have found another four new asteroids (K02RS1Y, K02GI6M, K02Tc5O, K02L63G). This is more than I had expected to find.

05.10.2009 I have just started to find prediscoveries with SKYMORPH. After a few days I found prediscovery images of the main belt asteroids 2009 KH7, 2009 FQ21 and 2009 DD106 in Palomar NEAT images of 2001 - 2003. The images of 2009 DD106 from 2001-10-24 showed a new object, which I could identify also in the images of 2001-10-16 and 2001-10-08. I sent my measurements of the new object to the MPC and it was acknowledged as K01TQ1A (2001 TA261). This is my first find of a new asteroid.

28.09.2009 I have made a page about 2000 PG3 and 96P/Machholz at http://www.rkracht.de/soho/2000pg3.htm which shows a possible relation between 2000 PG3 and 96P/Machholz.

30.06.2009 I found a bright (perhaps mag 6) non-group comet in realtime C2 images of 06:06 -08:30 UTC. Later, I found C3 images of this comet from June 29 23:18 - June 30 06:18 UTC.

24.06.2009 I found a Kreutz group comet with a short tail in realtime C2 images of 18:06 and 18:30 UTC. It was later found also in the C3 images.

09.06.2009 I found a small Kracht group comet in realtime C2 images of 05:06 - 07:27 UTC.

04.06.2009 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 21:50 and 22:06 UTC.

03.06.2009 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 18:50 and 19:06 UTC.

15.05.2009 I found a small Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images of 14:06 - 15:54 UTC.

13.05.2009 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images of May 11 08:06 - 09:50 UTC.

06.05.2009 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 s/w images of 16:24 and 16:36 UTC. Later I found additional C3 images from 14:18 - 16:18 UTC.

04.05.2009 I could link the Kracht group comets C/1996 X3 = 2002 S7 = 2008 N4 using small gravitational forces (MPEC 2009-J14). This is the first three apparitions linkage of a Kracht comet (orbital period 5.8 years). I have compared the light curves of the involved comets on this page.

26.04.2009 The observations from 1997 May 01 received the designation C/1997 J6 (MPEC 2009-H56) and Brian Marsden confirmed that nongravitational forces are required for the linkage of C/2001 D1 = 2004 X7 = 2008 S2 = 1997 J6 (details are at the bottom of this page). More about SOHO linkages is here.

24.04.2009 I found a small Kreutz group comet in delayed images of 05:50 - 07:50 UTC.

18.04.2009 I could link three positions of 1997 May 01 with those of C/2001 D1 = 2004 X7 = 2008 S2 using nongravitational parameters A1 and A2. This indicates that we have a real comet here observed in four apparitions.

07.04.2009 I have found three possible positions of C/2001 D1 = 2004 X7 = 2008 S2 in SOHO LASCO C2 images of 1997 May 01.

25.03.2009 I could link the orbits of the Marsden group comets C/2003 Q1 = 2008 X6 and C/2003 Q6 = 2008 Y11. The orbital elements for C/2003 Q1 and Q6 are now very similar and give previous perihelion dates as 1998 April 29 and 26 suggesting that they split off from each other in 1998. The apparent path of the Marsden comets in April runs through the lower left part of the C2 images, which is partially obscured by the pylon. No Marsden comets were found 1998 April/May. MPEC 2009-F81

23.03.2009 I have made a page about the brightest Kreutz group comets.

24.02.2009 I found a small Meyer group comet in realtime C2 images of 20:30 - 21:30 UTC.

13.01.2009 I found a small Kreutz group comet in STEREO SECCHI HI1A images of February 10 01:29 to 03:29 UTC, which was not observed before in SOHO LASCO images.

16.01.2009 Karl Battams found Alan's comet in STEREO-HI1-B images of January 12 not very far from the expected positions in HI1-B from my orbit determination with the known positions in HI1-A.

13.01.2009 Alan Watson found the first new non-group comet in STEREO-HI1-A images of January 10. It was rather faint with perhaps mag 12 and difficult to follow.

23.12.2008 I found a small non-group comet in delayed C2 images of December 22 16:54 - 18:54 UTC.

22.12.2008 I found a Marsden group comet in delayed C2 images of 07:30 - 08:54 UTC. It left the C2 field 10:30 UTC.

11.12.2008 Alan Watson found an unknown comet in STEREO SECCHI HI1B images of December 08. I measured the available positions and computed possible orbits. From these Maik Meyer suggested the identity with P/2003 K2. The identity was confirmed (P/2003 K2 = 2008 X4).

10.12.2008 I found a Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 19:54 - 20:06 UTC. Delayed images showed that it had already entered C2 at 17:30 UTC.

07.12.2008 I found a Meyer group comet in C2 images of 00:31 - 02:06 UTC. It was visible in seven consecutive images 00:31 - 02:30 in the lower part of the C2 field, but didn't appear on the other side of the sun.
Later I found a small Marsden group comet in C2 images of 12:54 - 14:06 UTC. It was visible 12:30 - 15:30 UTC

03.12.2008 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 22:30 - 23:06 UTC.

27.11.2008 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 16:30 - 17:06 UTC. These were the first images after a gap of more than seven hours and the comet had travelled already well into the C2 field. I posted the first two positions and could soon spot the comet in a fourth image from 17:30 UTC.

04.11.2008 I found a Meyer group comet in delayed C2 images of 07:30 - 08:54 UTC. It was then in the lower part of the C2 field but didn't brighten much in later images.

29.10.2008 Matthew Knight has finished his dissertation on 'Studies of SOHO Comets' including the Marsden and Kracht group comets (PDF 4 MB at Matthew's website).

27.10.2008 I found a small Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images of 10:54 - 11:06 UTC. It was trailing another Kreutz found by Rob Matson in C3. Later, I found a possible companion to the trailing Kreutz.

20.10.2008 I found a moderately bright Kreutz group comet in the C2 image of 20:56 UTC and in two C3 images of 19:42 and 20:18 UTC. There was a data gap of C3 images 11:18 - 19:42, which prevented to find it earlier. The comet was soon confirmed by Michal Kusiak and Rob Matson and by a third C3 image of 21:00 UTC.

C2 image from 20:56 UTC

14.10.2008 I found a small Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images of October 14 07:30 - 08:06 UTC. It was not reported in C3 previously. It seems that this is the first C2 only Kreutz of the season.

04.10.2008 I found a small non-group comet in LASCO C2 images of 2008 Oct 03 21:50 - 23:50 UTC.

02.10.2008 Karl Battams has included the new periodic comets in his latest news story.

27.09.2008 The linked orbit C/2001 D1 = C/2004 X7 = C/2008 S2 was published on MPEC 2008-S82.

25.09.2008 Brian Marsden confirmed the identifications C/2001 D1 = C/2004 X7 = new comet of 2008 Sep. 17/18 and C/1999 X3 = C/2004 E2 = C/2008 K10 (personal email). The second identification was put on MPEC 2008-S49, the first awaits further positional measurements.

24.09.2008 I have identified another short period comet close to the sun: C/1999 X3 = C/2004 E2 = C/2008 K10. The orbital period is 4.2 years, again close to the 1:3 resonance with Jupiter.

20.09.2008 I found 20 additional positions of C/2001 D1 which confirm the identity C/2001 D1 = C/2004 X7 = new comet of 2008 Sep. 17/18. These positions match the common orbit of the three comets, but not the orbit of C/2001 D1 as published on MPEC 2002-O27.

19.09.2008 I could link some observations of the new non-group comet with those of C/2001 D1 and C/2004 X7. The orbital period is about 3.8 years.

18.09.2007 I found a small non-group comet in LASCO C2 images of September 17 19:32 - 21:30 UTC. Later, Rob Matson posted positions of the comet on the other side of the sun. It crossed the C2 field from September 17 19:32 - September 18 09:06 UTC.The apparent path through C2 is similar to that of C/2004 X7 as it would appear on September 17/18. Both comets are apparently related.

13.09.2008 I found eight consecutive images of the latest Kracht group comet in SECCHI COR2A of 2008 Sep 06 16:53 - 20:23 UTC. These images could make a considerable improvement to the orbit of this comet. An animation of the eight images is here.

07.09.2008 I found a Kreutz group comet in b/w 512 x 512 C3 images 21:42 - 23:42 UTC. It was then more than 24 hours before perihelion, so it should become rather bright.

06.09.2008 I found a moderately bright Kracht group comet in b/w 512 x 512 C3 images 11:42 and 12:18 UTC. It was invisible in the next image, but again visible 13:42 - 15:42 UTC. Now I was convinced that it was real and posted my find to the sohohunter group. Michal Kusiak confirmed it with the next C3 image. The comet entered the C2 field 18:54 UTC with mag 5 or 5.5. It is one of the brightest Kracht group comets seen until now.

03.09.2008 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images of 15:54 - 17:30 UTC. A delayed image from 15:30 confirmed the comet.

18.08.2008 I have updated my page about the orbital evolution of the known pairs of Kracht group comets.

13.08.2008 The latest Kracht group comet has been designated as C/2008 N4. My linkage with C/2002 S7 has been confirmed. Brian Marsden published a common orbit for both comets and wrote (MPEC 2008-P60):
This gravitational linkage leads to a previous perihelion time of T = 1996 Dec. 6.00, earlier by a few hours than the values for the aforementioned 1996 comets.

06.08.2008 I have updated the page about the orbital evolution of the three pairs of Kracht group comets.

05.08.2008 I have made a page about the orbital evolution of the three pairs of Kracht group comets.

03.08.2008 I have made a page about the orbital evolution of the "Kracht2" comets P/2007 R5 and C/2008 L6.

24.07.2008 Brian Marsden designated the two comets from 2008 June 10 as C/2008 L6 and L7 and wrote (MPEC 2008-O23):
Comets C/2008 L6 and L7 appear to be members of the "Kracht 2" Group, and
R. Kracht suggests that they represent a return of comet C/2002 R5 (cf. MPEC
2002-S35). The 15-deg shift in the line of nodes actually supports the
likely correctness of this linkage, as it is consistent with the comet's
passage within 1.1 AU of Jupiter in Jan. 2007.
So the "Kracht 2" group is back again with three members.

11.07.2008 I found a small non-group comet in delayed C2 images of July 10 14:30 - 16:30 UTC.

04.07.2008 Tony Hoffman found the 32th Kracht group comet in C2 images starting at 02:30 UTC.

03.07.2008 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 21:55 - 22:06 UTC.

15.06.2008 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 18:54 - 20:06 UTC.

10.06.2008 I found a comet in C2 images of 00:54 - 02:06 UTC. It moves very close to the track of the second Kracht group comet(s). Only minutes later I found a small leading fragment on the same track in C2 images of 00:30 - 03:06 UTC. Both comets move very close to the projected path of C/2002 R5 for June 10.
I have measured the available postions of the brighter component and could link them with the observations of C/2002 R5.

06.06.2008 The 31th Kracht group comet was designated C/2008 G6. The possible link with C/2002 S11 was confirmed (MPEC 2008-L29).

02.06.2006 I have assembled a page with images of all Marsden group comets.

31.05.2008 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images of 00:06 - 00:54 UTC.

17.05.2008 I have assembled a page with images of all Kracht group comets.

12.05.2008 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 00:30 - 00:54 UTC.

24.04.2008 I could link several Kracht group comets: C/1996 N6 with C/2004 J4 and C/1999 M3 with C/2004 J12/20/13/15/16/17/18. The results are at the bottom of this page.

18.04.2008 I found a Meyer group comet in realtime C2 images of 08:06 - 09:30 UTC.

15.04.2008 I could link the observations of the new Kracht group comet with those of C/2002 S11. This link yields 1997 Mar 17.0 as the previous perihelion time showing that C/2002 S11 is not directly related to the 1996 December cluster. It seems to be now very probable that C/1996 X3/X4/X5 have returned as 2002 S4/S5/S7.

13.04.2008 Bo Zhou found the 31th Kracht group comet in C2 images of April 12/13.

26.03.2008 The new Meyer group comet was designated C/2008 F1. The link with C/1997 U8 was not confirmed. The new Kracht group comet was designated C/2008 E4. The link with C/2002 Q8 was confirmed (MPEC 2008-F32).

20.03.2008 I could link the first three observations of the new Meyer group comet with C/1997 U8 indicating an orbital period of 10.4 years.

19.03.2008 I found a Meyer group comet in realtime C2 images of 22:30 - 23:54 UTC.

18.03.2008 I found three possible images of the STEREO comet from March 15 in LASCO C2 images of March 15/16 23:54 - 00:30 UTC.

17.03.2008 I found a small Kreutz group comet in STEREO SECCHI HI1-A images of March 15 04:09 - 06:09 UTC.

07.03.2008 I could link the observations of the new Kracht group comet with those of C/2002 Q8. This link yields 1997 Feb 14.9 as the previous perihelion time showing that C/2002 Q8 is not directly related to the 1996 December cluster.

06.03.2008 The four STEREO SECCHI comets were officially announced on MPEC 2008 E-58. Alan's third Sechhi comet was observed in COR2A and COR2B, an elliptical solution has an orbital period of 120 to 180 years ("likely to be somewhat too small for a member of the Kreutz group"). This orbital solution is based on only two days of observations.

04.03.2008 Hua Su found the 30th Kracht group comet in delayed C2 images of March 03.

24.02.2008 I found a small Kreutz group comet in STEREO SECCHI HI1-A images of February 21 00:49 - 02:49 UTC. Alan Watson confirmed it in images starting at Feb 20 21:29 UTC.

22.02.2008 Alan Watson found the third STEREO SECCHI comet in HI1-A images of February 20 04:09 - 08:49 UTC. I found it independly in the images 07:29 - 08:49, but waited for the next images to confirm the comet. Alan posted earlier and it turned out to be a real Kreutz group comet!

21.02.2008 Alan Watson found the second STEREO SECCHI comet in HI1-A images of February 19 16:09 - 18:49 UTC.

19.02.2008 Alan Watson found the first STEREO SECCHI comet in HI1-A images of February 16 20:09 - 23:29 UTC!

15.02.2008 I found a small non-group comet in realtime C2 images of 02:31 - 03:30 UTC.

14.02.2008 The return of C/1996 X3 = C/2002 N2 was not observed (more).

03.02.2008 I found a small non-group comet in realtime C2 images of 09:54 - 11:30 UTC.

29.01.2008 The missing images were processed and measured earlier than expected. SOHO #1429 was designated C/2008 A3 and the link with C/2002 R1 published on MPEC 2008-B61.

25.01.2008 Brian Marsden linked the Marsden group comet from December (now designated C/2007 Y4) with C/2002 R4. In a personal mail he confirmed also the link of SOHO #1429 with C/2002 R1.

23.01.2008 Karl Battams confirmed my latest Marsden group comet as SOHO #1429 and wrote that the missing images will be processed in about two or three weeks.

20.01.2008 I could make a tentative link of the new Marsden group comet from January 15/16 with C/2002 R1 using my own measurements of the new comet. The images between 14:06 and 17:54 are still missing.

16.01.2008 I found a small Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images of January 15 23:30 - 16 00:30 UTC. It is visible in at least ten consecutive images until 02:30 UTC. Later I found additional images from January 15 13:54 and 14:06 UTC. I had suspected that there is a Marsden group comet entering the C2 field, but there was a lack of images thereafter and after this, I could not find a third position in the next image of 17:54 UTC. Perhaps the missing images will be transmitted later.

10.01.2008 I have tried to estimate the orbital period of the suspected short period comet C/2003 T12 (results).

28.12.2007 I found a Meyer group comet in delayed C2 images of 03:08 - 04:06 UTC.

21.12.2007 I found a small Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images of 18:30 - 20:30 UTC. This is my 200th SOHO comet!
Until now, I have found 107 SOHO Kreutz, 93 SOHO non-Kreutz and 4 Solwind (3 Kreutz and 1 non-Kreutz) comets.

12.12.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 13:54 - 14:54 UTC, Hua Su posted a few seconds later. Karl Battams confirmed the comet the same day as
Soho# Date/Time of Post Discoverer Tel Group Images of..
===============================================================
1416 Dec12,07 09:40:25 R.Kracht,H.Su C2 Kreutz Dec12,07
and wrote: Rainer is now just one comet away from his 200th! Wow!!!

11.12.2007 Karl Battams confirmed my Nov 29 comet as SOHO #1404:
Soho# Date/Time of Post Discoverer Tel Group Images of..
===============================================================
1404 Nov29,07 16:19:38 R.Kracht C2 Kreutz Nov29,07

04.12.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 19:31 - 19:54 UTC. In the first image it was partially occulted by the date/time stamp.The next two images confirmed my claim.

29.11.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images of 08:30 - 09:54 UTC. It was clearly visible in the first (08:30) image, but the transmission of images stopped after this first image. So, all hunters had to wait for the next image(s). Hua Su searched for possible C3 images of the comet and posted a C3 claim. Now he could post the single image as "known comet entering". But his C3 positions don't line up with his single C2 position. I sent the first correct report when the next C2 images arrived.

23.11.2007 Matthew M. Knight gave a talk about the "Recent Evolution of the Kracht Group of Comets" at the DPS meeting of the American Astronomical Society 7-12 October 2007 in Orlando, Florida (abstract). Details of his talk are not written up yet, but he agrees with my list of perihelion dates for the comets returning in 2008 in a personal mail from 2007 Nov 23.

22.11.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 18:00 - 18:12 UTC.

14.11.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images of November 14 15:26 - 16:26 UTC.

13.11.2007 I found a small Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images of November 13 11:06 - 11:26 UTC.

05.11.2007 I found additional images of my comet of yesterday and Hua Su confirmed my report. Later I found another small Kreutz group comet in C2 realtime images of 16:06 - 16:30 UTC.

04.11.2007 I found a possible Kreutz group comet in "quicklook" FITS C2 images of November 03 13:50 and 14:06 UTC, trailing a bright Kreutz group comet by two hours. Until now, there are only these two images, so the comet cannot be confirmed.

11.10.2007 Karl Battams made a "Latest News" story about returning comets and my predictions for the Kracht group comets of 2008.

08.10.2007 I have found numerous orbital links between the Kracht group comets of 1996 and 2002 and made predictions for their return in 2008. The predictions are at the bottom of this page.

29.09.2007 I found a small non-group comet in delayed images of September 28 14:30-17:06 UTC.

10.09.2007 Bo Zhou found the returning comet C/1999 R1 = C/2003 R5 (both members of the second Kracht group, which had only three members) in LASCO C2 images of 2007 September 10 19:31 - 21:30 UTC moving very close to the prediction of Sebastian Hönig. This proves that C/1999 R1 and C/2003 R5 are two apparitions of the same comet. The second Kracht group has now only two members and cannot longer be called a group (at least until new members are found). Sebastian has made the first sucessful prediction of the return of a SOHO comet.

07.09.2007 Karl Battams gave credit to Hua Su and to me for the Kreutz comet of August 28:
Confirmations:
Soho# Date/Time of Post Discoverer Tel Group Images of..
===============================================================
1350 Aug28,07 11:02:06 H.Su,R.Kracht C3 Kreutz Aug28,07

28.08.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in C3 realtime images of 14:18 - 15:18 UTC. It was clearly visible in two images of 14:18 and 14:42 which appeared after a gap of 14 hours of SOHO LASCO images. But three images are needed for a valid C3 claim. It was not visible in two images 14 hours ago, so I waited for the next (15:18) image. In the meantime, Hua Su added two positions from 00:18 and 00:42 UTC and posted a claim. But his 00:18 and 00:42 positions were only a rough guess and certainly not positions of this comet. When the image of 15:18 appeared, I posted my claim. One minute later Shihong Yuan posted a similar claim. Shihong Yuan was too late and Hua Su had only two positions, so my claim was the first valid claim. It's my 190th SOHO LASCO comet.

03.07.2007 Karl Battams didn't confirm my C3 Kreutz from 2007 May 26. Due to data gaps it's only visible in seven images 15:18 - 18:18 UTC.

28.05.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images of 07:50 - 08:50 UTC.

26.05.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in C3 realtime images of 15:18 - 16:18 UTC.

22.05.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images of 05:48 - 06:24 UTC.

16.05.2007 Karl Battams didn't confirm Bo's latest Kracht group comet.

05.05.2007 Bo Zhou found another archival Kracht group comet in C2 images of 2004 May 13 02:26 - 04:26 UTC..

02.05.2007 I found a bright Meyer group comet in C2 realtime images of 15:54 - 16:54 UTC.

30.04.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in C2 realtime images of 12:50 - 13:27 UTC. Bo Zhou had posted 35 seconds earlier, so it's Bo's comet.

20.04.2007 I found a Kreutz group comet in C2 realtime images of 17:26 - 18:26 UTC.

13.02.2007 Bo Zhou found a fragment/companion to the Kracht group comet C/2004 J13 (SOHO-779) in archival C2 images of 2004 May 13.

26.01.2007 Karl Battams has finally promoted my comet from 2006 December 27 to SOHO-1249:
1249 Dec27,06 15:19:42 R.Kracht C2 ?NonGrp? Dec27,06

19.01.2007 Karl Battams has revisited the object from 2006 Dec 27 after I had sent him several additional positions and considers the object now as real. He thinks that it's not a Kreutz but a non-group comet.

29.12.2006 Karl Battams confirmed the recent comets and wrote: "First, sorry Rainer but that little Kreutz of yours just wasn't right somehow. I couldn't get a fifth position and I just didn't feel 100% confident of it so it is an X-Comet".It's my comet from December 27:
XC58 Dec27,06 15:19:42 R.Kracht C2 ?Kreutz? Dec27,06

28.12.2006 I found a leading companion in C2 realtime images of 12:30 - 12:54 UTC to a Kreutz group comet, which was found earlier this day in C3 by Wentao Xu.

27.12.2006 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 realtime images of 19:31 - 20:06 UTC.

21.12.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in C2 realtime images of 20:58 - 21:12 UTC. Nineteen minutes later Tony Hoffman found a companion to this comet and an hour behind the first comet Michele Mazzucato found a second companion.

20.12.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 realtime images of 01:31 - 01:54 UTC. It was hidden behind the date/time stamp in the earlier images.

15.12.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 realtime images of 04:54 - 05:54 UTC. One hour later I found a small Meyer group comet in delayed realtime C2 images of 11:54 - 12:54 UTC.

09.12.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 realtime images of 01:45 - 02:35 UTC. It was well visible through a lot of cosmic ray hits (snow).

01.12.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in six archival C3 images of 2003 February 08.

25.11.2006 I found a small Kreutz group comet with a hint of a tail in C2 realtime images of 11:30 - 12:66 UTC.

11.11.2006 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 realtime images of 20:26 - 21:26 UTC.

30.10.2006 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 realtime images of 14:30 - 15:30 UTC. It's clearly visible in only three images and faded quickly thereafter.

April - October 2006 I have searched the archival SMM images (about 173000) for previously unrecognized comets, but have found only the ten already known Kreutz group comets.

21.03.2006 Karl Battams confirmed all of my recent archive claims including the non-group from 2006 March 11 /1997 Nov 14 (personal mail).

20.03.2006 I have completed my search in archival C2 and C3 images of 1996 - 1998. I was looking mainly for as yet unnoticed precursors of the Kracht group comets.
I had found a trio of Kracht group comets and a trio of Marsden group comets about three months ago, but in the rest of the images I found only six Kreutz, two Meyer and a possible non-group comet.

18.03.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in seven archival C3 images of 1998 October 14/15 19:20 - 05:45 UTC. These were the very first images after LASCO resumed operations in 1998 October.

16.03.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in six archival C2 images of 1998 November 30.

12.03.2006 I found a Meyer group comet in nine archival C2 images of 1997 December 15 09:55 - 13:55 UTC.

11.03.2006 I found a possible non-group comet in five archival C2 images of 1997 November 14 07:30 - 09:23 UTC.

09.03.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in archival C2 images of 1998 June 02.

06.03.2006 I found a Meyer group comet in archival C2 images of 1998 April 11.

18.02.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in archival C3 images of 1997 November 06. It is visible in about 12 images, but nearly drowned in a severe proton storm in the last two images.

14.02.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in archival C3 images of 1997 July 31/August 01.

07.02.2006 Karl Battams confirmed only the second Kreutz group comet from February 02 and put the first as a x-comet.

02.02.2006 I found a small Kreutz group comet in archival C3 images of 1996 August 30/31. Later, I found another small Kreutz group comet in archival C3 images of 1996 September 03/04.

27.01.2006 I have made an animation of the bright pair of Kracht group comets in C3 images from 1996 December 06 12:20 - 20:00 UTC. The two comets seem to be gliding through a solar streamer and seem to be nearly caught up by a coronal mass ejection. The bright star to the lower right of the images is omega Oph. The comets are leaving the vicinity of the Sun to reappear in SOHO/LASCO images of 2002 September!

22.01.2006 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C3 images of January 21.

03.01.2006 Z. Sekanina suggested that one of the three Marsden group comets from 1997 Jan 29 is a previous appearance of C/2002 R1 or C/2002 R4 (Personal mail). Karl Battams confirmed the latest six comets and wrote:

Confirmations:
Soho#  Date/Time of Post  Discoverer   Tel     Group    Images of...
==================================================================
1080  archive (via email)  R.Kracht   C2,C3    Kracht   Dec05-06,96
1081  archive (via email)  R.Kracht   C2,C3    Kracht   Dec05-06,96
1082  archive (via email)  R.Kracht     C2     Kracht   Dec05-06,96
1083  archive (via email)  R.Kracht     C2     Marsden  Jan29,97
1084  archive (via email)  R.Kracht     C2     Marsden  Jan29,97
1085  archive (via email)  R.Kracht     C2     Marsden  Jan29,97
1086  Jan 02,06 19:44:50   R.Matson   C3,C2    Kreutz   Jan02-03,06
--
The above confirmations are not a typing mistake! Rainer has found
a trio of Kracht-group comets and a trio of Marsden-group comets in 
archived data! Well done, Rainer -- that is a fantastic set of
discoveries! Please note that it will probably be the end of the month,
or more likely the beginning of next month, before these appear on
MPECs.
--
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
--
~~KB

02.01.2006 I found a third Kracht group comet in archival C2 images of 1996 Dec 05/06. It was fainter than the other two comets I found four days earlier and is leading the other two by three and four hours.

31.12.2005 I found three small (perhaps mag 8) Marsden group comets in archival C2 images of 1997 Jan 29. The first comet entered the field of view at 11:55 UTC, the third comet was last visible in the image of 23:30 UTC. All three comets are visible together in six images from 15:32 to 19:30 UTC.

29.12.2005 I found two bright Kracht group comets in archival C2 and C3 images of 1996 Dec 06/07. They follow each other separated by about one hour of time. These comets should be the precursors of C/2002 S4/S7/S11. Karl Battams prepares a movie of these comets and will put it on the sungrazer site. He wrote:

Hello all,
I am very pleased to confirm that Rainer Kracht has found a very bright
pair of Kracht-group comets in C2 and C3 images from Dec 1996! I am
currently in the process of making a movie of them but in the meantime 
you can see the pair in the following (slightly enlarged) C3 image:
http://ares.nrl.navy.mil/sungrazer/images/1996_kracht_big.gif
Rainer believes (and rightly so, in my opinion) that these two comets
are precursors to some or all of the C/2002 S[4/5/7/11] comets.
Congratulations Rainer -- a wonderful find! These comets will be 
SOHO-1080 and SOHO-1081.
~~KB

26.12.2005 I found a bright Meyer group comet in delayed C2 images of 2005 Dec 24/25 but in wasn't visible in the C3 images. Later I found a Kreutz group comet with a small tail in delayed C3 images of 2005 Dec 24/25, it was faintly seen also in the C2 images.

23.12.2005 The Marsden group comets C/1999 U2 and C/2005 W5 could be linked by Brian Marsden following a suggestion by Z. Sekanina, P. Chodas and by me using my prediscovery observations of C/1999 U2 (MPEC 2005-Y27).

08.09.2005 Sebastian Hönig has linked C/1999 R1 and C/2003 R5 with an orbital period of 4 years (http://de.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0509168). The next perihelion should be 2007 Sep 11. For C/2002 R5 the next perihelion is given as possibly somewhere between 2006 Jul 30 or 2006 Aug 17.

13.08.2005 The non-group comet from Solwind images 1984 Sep 15/16 is announced on IAUC 8583.

25.07.2005 The two Kreutz group comets from Solwind images 1983/1984 are announced on IAUC 8573.

23.07.2005 I found a non-group comet in Solwind images of 1984 September 15/16.

22.07.2005 I found a third small Kreutz group comet in Solwind images of 1984 August 22/23.

19.07.2005 I found another small Kreutz group comet in Solwind images of 1983 July 07.

30.06.2005 I found a small Kreutz group comet in Solwind images of 1981 November 20.It's the faintest Solwind comet until now with mag 2 - 3 (IAUC 8566).
Images of the comet are here.

28.05.2005 I found a small Meyer group comet in realtime C2 images of 02:32 - 05:32 UTC.

25.05.2005 I found a Kreutz group comets in archival C3 images of 2001 Sep 28/29.

21.05.2005 I found a Kreutz group comets in archival C3 images of 2001 Aug 16. The comet was hidden in a proton storm.

17.05.2005 I found a small Meyer group comet in realtime C2 images of May 16 06:06 - 08:06 UTC.

26.04.2005 I found a non-group group comet in realtime C2 images of April 25 04:50 - 06:26 UTC.

25.04.2005 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images of 02:06 - 03:06 UTC.

15.04.2005 Karl Battams confirmed the latest two comets and wrote:
Huge congratulations to Rainer Kracht -- SOHO-942 is his 150th SOHO
discovery!! An Awesome achievement! Well done, Rainer! His 150th comet
is a very interesting one too! It was well hidden in a strong particle
storm period. It was about 7th mag with a short tail. Rainer points out
it follows almost perfectly the same path as C/2001 T5, found just 11
months later. Its speed is also nearly identical. Rainer has made a nice
page about it here: http://www.rkracht.de/soho/2001-t5.htm

Brian Marsden wrote later that day (MPEC 2005-G93):
C/2000 V4 appears to be related to C/2001 T5 (MPEC 2001-V10). This was
pointed out by R. Kracht prior to the derivation of the above positions and
the orbit computation.

Orbital elements of both comets:

14.04.2005 I found a non-group comet in archival C3 images of 2000 Nov 10/11. It follows the projected orbit of C/2001 T5 very well. So both comets seem to form a new pair. An image showing the projected orbit of C/2001 T5 and the C3 positions of the new comet is here.

13.04.2005 I found archival C3 images of SOHO-205 (a Kreutz group comet, which had only be seen in C2 until now).

12.04.2005 I found a Kreutz group comets in archival C3 images of 2000 Sep 28.

31.03.2005 I found archival C3 images of SOHO-153 (a Kreutz group comet, which had only be seen in C2 until now).

23.03.2005 I found a bright Meyer group comet in archival C3 and C2 images of 1996 July 03/04.

20.03.2005 I found a non-group comet in archival C3 images of 1997 Nov 02. It faded out just before it reached C2.

17.03.2005 I found a Kreutz group comets in archival C3 images of 1997 May 02.
Later, I found a Marsden group comet in archival C3 images of 1996 Nov 11/12. It had also crossed the C2 field, but there are no C2 images for that time.
I think, this is the Marsden group comet which I have searched for when I started my archival C3 search on March 11. It appears almost exactly six years before C/2002 V5 and could be its immediate precursor.It shares a high orbital inclination (33.4 deg) with C/2002 V5 (34.2 deg). The mean inclination for the 22 known Marsden group comets is 27.4 deg. If both comets are the same, it should return in 2008 November.

15.03.2005 I found a non-group comet in archival C3 images of 1997 Jan 21. Karl Battams wrote:

So, unless I'm mistaken, this puts Rainer and Mike on joint top-spot
for the number of comet discoveries -- they both have 144! Very
impressive!

MPEC-E87 came out with an orbit for the Marsden group comet from 2005 Mar 10. Brian could link the orbit to C/1999 N5. It is possible, that C/1999 U2 split from the precursor of C/1999 N5 and C/2005 E4 in 1993 November. If this is true, C/1999 U2 is likely to return around 2005 Oct 08.

14.03.2005 I found a Kreutz group comets in archival C3 images of 1997 Sep 19.

13.03.2005 I found two Kreutz group comets in archival C3 images of 1997 Aug 08/09.

12.03.2005 I found archival C3 images of SOHO-184 (a Kreutz group comet, which had only be seen in C2 until now).

10.03.2005 I found a Marsden group comet in realtime C3 images 11:18 - 12:42 UTC. It entered the C2 field 20:30 UTC and left it Mar 11 01:31 UTC. It was visible in C3 until about 03:18 UTC. It's quite possible that this is the return of C/1999 U2.

13.02.2005 I found a non-group comet in the FITS QL-images of February 12 17:30 - 18:54 UTC. The comet brightened considerably in the following hours but could not be found in C3 images after it had left the C2 field.

15.01.2005 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed (512 x 512) C3 b/w images of January 15 10:44 - 12:42 UTC. Later, it was clearly visible in 1024 x 1024 GIFs. This is SOHO-900.
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1454_1.asp

14.12.2004 Brian Marsden found that "It is eminently possible that C/2004 V9 is in fact identical with C/1999 J6 (cf. MPEC 2000-F30).". These two comets are members of the Marsden group. About the Kracht group comets he added: " Earlier computations, by both the undersigned and P. Chodas, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had suggested linkages among C2 observations of Kracht Group comets, namely, the possibility that C/1999 M3 (MPEC 2002-E18) = C/2004 L10 (MPEC 2004-O05) and that C/1999 N6 (MPEC 2002-F03) = C/2004 J4 or C/2004 J18 (MPEC 2004-M71, 2004-N05)." MPEC2004-X73.

08.12.2004 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images of December 07 08:26 - 10:06 UTC.

30.11.2004 I found a small Marsden group comet in C2 images of November 29 04:26 - 05:50 UTC.

19.11.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 13:42 - 14:42 UTC. It entered the C2 field 23:26 UTC.

21.10.2004 I found a small realtime Kreutz group comet trailing a brighter one (which was found by Heiner Otterstedt) in C3 images from 06:42 - 09:18 UTC. Both comets entered the C2 field 15:30 UTC. Their separation in C3 was so small that individual positions for the trailing comet could not be measured. So my comet counts only as a C2 comet.

15.10.2004 The 50th Meyer group comet has been confirmed by the Minor Planet Center (on behalf of Commission 20 of the International Astronomical Union): MPEC2004-T76.

12.10.2004 I found a small Meyer group comet at the very edge of the C2 field in delayed images from October 08/09 23:57 to 02:55 UTC. This is the 50th Meyer group comet. Maik Meyer has announced a prize of 3 bottles of German wines to the discoverer of the 50th confirmed member of the Meyer group of comets.

05.10.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 20:43 and 21:44 UTC. Ten minutes later it was posted by John Sachs. There was a gap of images from 10:42 to 20:43 UTC. When I knew where to look it was visible also in images from 09:18 to 10:42 UTC. The comet entered the C2 field at 02:07 UTC and was visible to at least 03:55 UTC on October 06.

18.06.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C2 images 02:12 - 02:36 UTC. It was also found by Tony Hoffman (posting 5 minutes late) and Xavier Leprette (8 minutes late). The comet had entered the C2 field already at 00:48 UTC and was also found independly by Jim Danaher in C3 images (posting 78 minutes late)..

13.06.2004 I found the 24th member of the Kracht group comets in realtime C2 images 16:06 - 17:06 UTC. It was visible in C2 until 05:50 UTC (Jun 14).

09.06.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 14:06 - 15:06 UTC. It had entered C2 already at about 12:18 UTC, but the LASCO cameras were taking special images of Venus between 12:06 and 14:06 UTC. It was also found by John Sachs (posting 45 seconds late) and XingMing Zhou (8 minutes late). Later, I found a second Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 14:18 - 15:42 UTC. It entered the C2 field 19:51 UTC.

30.05.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 10:42 - 12:18 UTC. It entered the C2 field 17:26 UTC.

19.05.2004 Karl Battams confirmed the latest comets and wrote:

May 19 2004 15:32:21
Mr Sungrazer

sungrazer@nrl.navy.mil
Confirmations:
Soho# Date/Time of Post Discoverer Tel Group Images of...
================================================================
776 May 12 2004 16:21:27 Rainer Kracht C2 Kreutz May12,04
777 May 12 2004 16:30:55 Rainer Kracht C2 Kracht May12,04
778 May 14 2004 00:32:26 Tony Hoffman C2 Kreutz May14,04
779 May 14 2004 11:52:41 Rainer Kracht C2 Kracht May13,04
780 May 14 2004 15:11:57 Rainer Kracht C2 Kracht May14,04
781 May 14 2004 23:53:07 Tony Hoffman C2 Kracht May14,04
782 May 15 2004 08:19:58 Rainer Kracht C2 Kracht May15,04
783 May 15 2004 17:11:33 Rainer Kracht C2 Kracht May15,04
784 May 18 2004 09:13:21 Rainer Kracht C2 Kreutz May18,04

Well that's definitely the most unusual sets of confirmations
I've done! Congrats to Rainer on 7 comets in 7 days, and congrats
to Tony for managing to beat him to two others!

18.05.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 11:50 - 12:50 UTC. It had entered C2 already 09:50 UTC, but the images 09:50 - 11:26 were delayed.

15.05.2004 I found the 22th member of the Kracht group comets in realtime C2 images 11:26 - 12:06 UTC. Later, I found the 23th member of the Kracht group comets in realtime C2 images 14:06 - 15:26 UTC.

14.05.2004 I found a Kracht group comet in C2 images from May 13 17:26 - 19:27 UTC. Later, I found the 20th member of the Kracht group comets in realtime C2 images 15:26 - 17:26 UTC.
Later, Tony Hoffman found the 21th member of the Kracht group comets in realtime C2 images.

13.05.2004 Brian Marsden wrote (MPEC 2004-J59):
R. Kracht remarked already last September on the similarity of the motion of what is now called C/2003 R5 to the motions of his proposed pair C/1999 R1 and C/2002 R5 (see MPEC 2002-S35), fortuitously observed at the same time of the year. The above orbit is essentially identical with that of C/1999 R1 on MPEC 1999-R19.
This looks now like the nucleus of a new group!

12.05.2004 I found a fairly bright Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 18:26 - 18:50 UTC. Later, I found the 18th member of the Kracht group comets in realtime C2 images 18:26 - 20:06 UTC.

10.05.2004 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 18:06 - 18:26 UTC.

06.05.2004 I found a Kracht group comet in C2 images from May 05 02:50 - 06:06 UTC.

18.04.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 19:47 and 20:42 UTC.

16.04.2004 I found a Meyer group comet in realtime C2 images 17:08 - 18:08 UTC. It was visible until 21:42UTC in C2.

11.04.2004 I found a bright Kreutz group comet with a short tail in realtime C2 images 18:54 - 19:31 UTC. It was hidden by the occulter bar in C3. In C2 it was visible until 23:30 UTC.

17.03.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 11:42 - 12:42 UTC. The comet entered C2 about 00:00 UTC on March 18, but there is only a single C2 image showing the comet at 00:37 UTC.

15.03.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed C3 images from Mar 14 19:42 - 21:42 UTC. It was visible until Mar 15 06:18 UTC.

12.03.2004 I found a small non-group comet in realtime C2 images 07:31 - 10:30 UTC.

13.02.2004 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 13:42 - 14:42 UTC.

05.02.2004 I found a Meyer group comet in C2 images of 2004 January 28 21:54 UTC - January 29 01:32 UTC.

03.02.2004 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 20:18 - 21:42 UTC.

18.01.2004 XingMing Zhou found another Kracht group comet in realtime C2 images.

15.01.2004 Tony Hoffman found a faint Kracht group comet in realtime C2 images.

24.12.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 16:42 - 18:18 UTC. It entered the C2 field Dec 25 12:06 and showed a short tail.

20.12.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 17:30 - 18:30 UTC. It was visible 17:30 - 20:30.

04.12.2003 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 15:50 - 16:50 UTC.

01.11.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet with a small tail in realtime C2 images 21:30 - 22:06 UTC.

27.09.2003 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images from Sep 25 00:30 - 03:30 UTC.

09.09.2003 I found a bright non-group comet in delayed C2 images from Sep 07 00:30 - 04:30 UTC.

26.08.2003 I found a faint Marsden group comet in realtime C2 images 13:50 - 14:50. It was visible from 13:27 (delayed image) until 16:50 UTC.

23.06.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 11:30 - 12:06. Xavier Leprette found it in images 10:30 - 11:54 but posted 13 seconds late. The comet was visible until 14:30.

19.06.2003 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 17:30 - 18:06. This is my 100th SOHO comet! It was visible 17:06 - 20:06.

18.06.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 11:54 - 12:30.

17.06.2003 I found a faint Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 21:30 - 22:06. It was visible until 01:54.

16.06.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in delayed realtime C2 images 04:30 - 05:30. Kazimieras Cernis (LIT) found it nearly simultaneously, his posting appeared two seconds later than mine.Dave Evans (GBR) posted 53 seconds later. Pavel Shkreby (RUS) followed 2 minutes and 8 seconds later. Then came Xavier Leprette (FRA) with 2 minutes and 39 seconds. Five people from five European countries found this comet independly. Later I found the comet in C3 images 02:18 -04:18. It was visible until 09:30 in C2.

15.06.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 14:54 - 15:30. It was visible until 18:54.

08.06.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 21:18 - 23:18. It entered the C2 field June 10 03:06 showing a faint tail.

05.06.2003 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 19:31 - 20:30.

25.05.2003 Terry Lovejoy wrote (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comets-ml/message/5016):

This was indeed an interesting SOHO Kreutz comet and showed a
residual tail AFTER perihelion up until about 4hrs UT May 25th. I
think the only other SOHO Kreutz comets show tail debrii after
perihelion were 1998K10 and K11.

This latest comet reached about mag 0-1, still well short of the mag -
2 to -3 reached by some of the SOLWIND and Solar Max comets of the
late 70's and 80's.

Regards,
Terry Lovejoy

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/old/27may2003/index.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/image_of_day_030606.html
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltraum/0,1518,252399,00.html

24.05.2003 The Kreutz group comet from May 22 has become very bright and entered the C2 field today 08:06. It was followed by the smaller comet three hours later. The head of the leading comet disappeared behind the C2 occultation disk about 16:50 two hours before perihelion. Parts of the tail remained visible for several hours (even after the time of perihelion). Derek Hammer designated the leading comet as SOHO-614 and the trailing as SOHO-615.
SOHO-614 and SOHO-615 2003 May 24 11:06 - 13:50 UTC

23.05.2003 The Kreutz group comet from May 22 has become really bright. I found a second Kreutz comet in realtime C3 images 11:18 - 12:18, which followed the bright one.

22.05.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 09:42 - 12:18. It was visible in the high resolution images already from 06:42. It may become a bright comet as it will enter the C2 field two days later.

15.05.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 13:42 - 16:18. Later, I found a faint Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 16:30 - 17:30. The first comet entered the C2 field May 16 04:30. It was strongly condensed and bright.

09.05.2003 I found a Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 18:06 - 18:54. Later I found it in delayed realtime C3 images also.

05.05.2003 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 18:26 - 18:50.

30.04.2003 I found a non-group twin comet in delayed C2 real-time images of today 07:27 - 08:26. It was visible from 03:06 - 12:50 UTC (MPEC 2003-P02). The trailing comet was about one magnitude fainter as the leading comet. Derek wrote:

May 02 2003 19:24:44
Derek Hammer

derek.hammer@nrl.navy.mil
Hello, I've had a look at the recent claims.

Obviously, Rainer's non-group comet is good and I agree that there
is a trailing fragment. The ruling on whether we consider this to
be a separate comet essentially belongs to Brian Marsden. In the
past such comets have been considered separate because the orbital
elements of each component can be used to compute the when and
where of the comet breakup. For now I will assume the separate
piece to be a comet. After all, if we didn't consider comet
fragments as separate entities, then there wouldn't be much
point in "discovering" any Kreutz comets.

SOHO# Observer Date Camera
--------------------------------------------
602 R. Kracht 03/04/30 C2
603 R. Kracht 03/04/30 C2

29.04.2003 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C2 images 12:26 - 13:27.

27.04.2003 I found a faint Meyer group comet in delayed C2 real-time images of today 08:06 - 10:50. It was visible 06:26 - 12:06 (MPEC 2003-P02).

29.03.2003 I found a very bright Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 13:42 - 15:18.

10.02.2003 I found a small Kreutz group comet in realtime C3 images 14:42 - 16:12. Derek Hammer called it "extremely dim" when he confirmed the find Feb 12 as SOHO-585.

26.12.2002 I found a small Kreutz group comet in delayed realtime C2 images. It entered the C2 field 04:06 and was visible until 06:54.

18.12.2002 I found a small realtime Kreutz group comet in C2 images 14:30 - 15:06.

08.12.2002 I found a small realtime Kreutz group comet in C2 images 23:06 - 23:54.

06.12.2002 I found a faint realtime Kreutz group comet in C2 images 09:54 - 10:54. As it didn't look 100% convincing, it was thrown into X-comet status by Derek.

02.12.2002 I found a small realtime Meyer group comet in C2 images 08:30 - 09:30. It emerged from a bright streamer already at 06:30 but no one noticed it. It was visible in C2 until 11:30 when it left the field of view (MPEC 2003-C01).

18.11.2002 I found a small realtime Kreutz group comet in images 18:36 - 19:00. It entered the C2 field 17:48, but the images 17:48 - 18:24 were not transmitted realtime. It was visible until 19:44 MPEC 2003-F18.

17.11.2002 I found a small realtime Kreutz group comet when it entered the C2 field 18:36 - 19:00. It was visible until 22:12 MPEC 2003-F16.

10.11.2002 I found an archival Kreutz group comet in C3 and C2 images of 2000 April 10 12:18 - 18:55. This is my 75th find (Until now, I have found 50 new archival and 25 new real-time comets) MPEC 2003-B42.

09.11.2002 I found a realtime Meyer group comet in C2 images 13:54 - 14:30. The animation is from five images 15:54 - 17:06. The comet left the C2 field of view about 18:30. Later, I found faint images of the comet from 08:30 to 13:32 (MPEC 2003-B42).

07.11.2002 I found archival C3 images of SOHO-101 (a Marsden group comet, which had only be seen in C2 until now).

28.10.2002 I found a realtime Meyer group comet in (delayed) C2 images of 01:50 - 02:50. It was visible in a total of 17 images until 07:27 (MPEC 2002-W42). From 04:06 on it was simultaneous visible with my C3 find from Oct 26 which grew rather bright and developed a long tail..

26.10.2002 I found a realtime Kreutz sungrazer comet in C3 images of 19:42 - 20:42. It developed very well and entered the C2 field Oct 28 04:06 The animation is from C2 images Oct 28 04:06 to 05:26 (MPEC 2002-W34)

23.10.2002 Derek confirmed that the comets seen in C2 and C3 1999 June 24 are the same. The comet received the SOHO number 531 and was credited to Mike Oates. Derek wrote:

I hope Rainer will not be too upset but I have given credit for
the 99/06/24 comet solely to M. Oates becaue he originally
reported this object in C2. The object showed characteristics
of a Kreutz comet but was visible in only three C2 images,
therefore it was deemed a SOHO X-comet. Now, Doug and I have
always checked each camera for every comet, but what can I say, we
stunk on this one! The comet was fairly obvious in C3 images.

20.10.2002 I found a small non-group comet in archival C3 images of 1999 July 18/19 21:18 - 03:18 (MPEC 2002-W34).

19.10.2002 I started searching the C3 archive on Oct 15. Today I found a new C3 Kreutz group comet in images of 1999 June 24 01:42 - 05:18. Mike Oates had reported a Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 1999 June 24 but it was then not confirmed.

19.09.2002 I found a small Kracht group comet in C2 images 15:30 - 16:30. It was visible until 20:06 (MPEC 2002-T16).

15.09.2002 I found a small Meyer Group comet in C2 images 15:06 - 16:06 It was visible until 17:06 (MPEC 2002-S35).

03.09.2002 I found a faint realtime Marsden group comet in C2 images 14:25 - 14:55. It was visible 11:35 - 17:10 (MPEC 2002-S35).

02.09.2002 I found a faint realtime Marsden group comet in C2 images 16:25 - 16:55. It was visible 16:20 - 20:35 (MPEC 2002-R57). This is the first Marsden group comet since February 2000.

31.08.2002 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images of 2002 August 19 07:32 - 09:30 and later found additional images 04:54 - 15:54 (MPEC 2002-R02).

27.08.2002 I found a small realtime Kracht group comet in C2 images 14:26 - 15:26. It was visible until 18:26 (MPEC 2002-R02).

16.08.2002 The Kracht group comet, which I found 2002 Aug 13, has been confirmed by Derek. He found it in C2 images July 11/12 15:30 - 18:06 and 02:30 - 05:30. So we can get a good orbit for this one (MPEC 2002-Q02).

13.08.2002 I found a small Kracht group comet in C2 images of 2002 July 12 02:30 - 05:30 and later found additional images July 11 16:06 - 17:06.

12.08.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 realtime images 12:06 - 14:06. (This is SOHO-500) It was visible in 12 images 12:06 - 16:30 (MPEC 2002-P63). It's a small thing:

SOHO-500
There is some noise but also a star (SAO 98561, mag 6.3) entering from the left side of the images.
SOHO-500 is about mag 8 (that's not much for a comet so close to the Sun).
A better animation can be found here.

NASA news-release
SPIEGEL-Online
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/comet_500_020814.html

10.08.2002 I found my second C3 realtime Kreutz sungrazer comet in images 16:18 - 18:18. (This will be SOHO-499.) It must have been visible several hours earlier, but the images between 12:18 and 16:18 were delayed. - It was visible 12:18 - 03:18 (Aug 11) (MPEC 2002-P55).

09.08.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 2002 Apr 20 19:27 - 22:26. It was confirmed and received SOHO number 498. The orbit was computed and published less than six hours after I had posted the claim (MPEC 2002-P41).

21.07.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 2001 Nov 02 07:54 - 10:06 (MPEC 2002-O34).

19.07.2002 The three new Kracht group comets have been confirmed (they received SOHO numbers 485,487,488).

Jul 18 2002 20:14:17
Derek Hammer

derek@sungrazer.nascom.nasa.gov
Wow, quite a few comets were discovered in the last few days.
We've looked at all claims since July 14th and here are the
confirmations...


SOHO# Name Date Camera
-------------------------------------
483 S. Hoenig 02/07/16-17 C2,C3
484 R. Matson 02/07/16-7 C2,C3
485 R. Kracht 01/08/24-25 C2
486 R. Matson 02/07/16-17 C3
487 R. Kracht 01/09/06 C2
488 R. Kracht 01/09/07 C2
489 M. Oates 01/09/12 C2


Derek

17.07.2002 I found a small Kracht group comet in C2 images of 2001 Sep 06 19:32 - 23:30. This seems to be the sixth member of the group. Later, I found another possible Kracht group comet in C2 images of 2001 Sep 07 12:06 - 13:32. It looks similar to the comets of 2001 Aug 21/24 and Sep 06 and moves on the same track with the same velocity, but is visible in only four or five images (MPEC 2002-O35).

16.07.2002 I found a small Kracht group comet in C2 images of 2001 Aug 24/25 20:50 - 01:27. This seems to be the fifth member of the group. It appeared only three days after C/2001 Q7 (which was my first SOHO comet and is also a group member) MPEC 2002-O35.

11.07.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 2001 May 16 16:06 - 22:06 (MPEC 2002-O34).

06.07.2002 The trailing fragment of my June 23 comet has been designated X-comet (Derek Hammer: recent-page). The IAU CBAT uses this designation for a comet for which a meaningful orbit can not be computed.

05.07.2002 I found a small non-group comet in C2 images of 2001 Feb 18 09:45 - 12:35 (MPEC 2002-O27).

04.07.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 2001 Feb 11 13:54 - 16:06 (MPEC 2002-O27).

23.06.2002 I found a close pair of realtime Kreutz group comets in images of 17:54 - 18:54. The second (following) comet was very faint and diffuse (MPEC 2002-N41).

20.06.2002 I found a small realtime Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 16:06 - 16:54. It was visible in C2 15:54 - 20:06 (MPEC 2002-M43). Later, I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 1997 Oct 23 00:34 - 02:36 at the very edge of the C2 FOV (MPEC 2002-M47).

19.06.2002 I found a Meyer group comet in C2 images of 1997 Oct 19 18:28 - 23:52. It was visible in C2 until Oct 20 02:01 (MPEC 2002-M43).

18.06.2002 I found a non-group group comet in C2 images of 1997 Sep 29 04:31 - 06:34 (MPEC 2002-M47).

17.06.2002 I found my first realtime C3 comet in images 12:30 - 13:45. It was visible in C3 12:00 - 06:30 (June 18) and in C2 07:05 - 10:40 (June 18). It appeared moderately bright in C2 but didn't show a tail (MPEC 2002-M47).

15.06.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 1997 Jul 25 07:31 - 11:00 (MPEC 2002-M23).

08.06.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 2000 Dec 03 14:06 - 17:26 (MPEC 2002-L63).

05.06.2002 I found a small realtime C2 Kreutz sungrazer. It was visible in the images of 12:13 - 15:54 (MPEC 2002-L22). It entered the C2 field of view in the very first image taken after the LASCO door reopened today. They had been closed 24 UT May 31 for maintenance activities.

04.06.2002 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 2000 Oct 12 09:50 - 11:51 (MPEC 2002-L19).

03.06.2002 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 2000 Oct 07 00:50 - 02:50 (MPEC 2002-L19).

27.05.2002 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 2000 Mar 28 15:06 - 17:06 (MPEC 2002-K72).

25.05.2002 I found a small Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 2000 Mar 19 11:06 - 13:54 (MPEC 2002-K72).

18.05.2002 I found a small realtime C2 Kreutz sungrazer. It was visible in the images of 16:06 - 20:06 (MPEC 2002-K48).

11.05.2002 I found a faint Marsden group comet in C2 images of 2000 Feb 04 11:06 - 14:06 (MPEC 2002-K48).

06.05.2002 I found a moderately bright Meyer group comet in C2 images of 1998 November 28 01:32 - 06:30. It was also visible in C3 06:18 - 11:18 (MPEC 2002-J39).

05.05.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 1998 Nov 03 02:18 - 09:18 (MPEC 2002-J39) and a small Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 1998 Nov 08 07:26 - 09:18. The small Kreutz group comet had been already reported by Xavier Leprette 2000 Nov 22, but was not confirmed by Doug Biesecker. It has now been confirmed (MPEC 2002-K48).

03.05.2002 I found a small and faint realtime C2 Kreutz sungrazer. It was visible in the images of 11:26 - 13:50 (MPEC 2002-J29).

01.05.2002 I found a faint realtime C2 Kreutz sungrazer. It was visible in the images of 17:26 - 18:26, nearly invisible 18:50 and again visible 19:06 - 19:50 (MPEC 2002-J09).

28.04.2002 I found a faint Meyer group comet in C2 images of 2000 July 04 15:50 - 17:50 (MPEC 2002-J09).

26.04.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet with a short tail in C2 images of 2000 May 06 05:26 - 11:06 (MPEC 2002-H49).

25.04.2002 I found a Kreutz group comet with a short tail in C2 images of 2000 Apr 28 15:54 - 20:30 (MPEC 2002-H49).

24.04.2002 I found a Kreutz group comet with a short tail in C2 images of 2000 Apr 26 01:31 - 04:06 (MPEC 2002-H49).

14.04.2002 I found a moderately bright Meyer group comet in C2 images of 1999 Mar 17 07:27 - 09:26. It was visible in C3 from 05:42 - 12:42 (MPEC 2002-H26).

12.04.2002 I found a bright realtime C2 Kreutz sungrazer with a short tail. It was hidden behind the pylon in C3 (MPEC 2002-H15).

08.04.2002 I found a small Meyer group comet in C2 images of 2002 Jan 01 03:54 - 06:54 (MPEC 2002-G45).

06.04.2002 Brian Marsden confirmed that I have found additional images of C/1999 U2 and will "put the observations and slightly refined orbit on the MPCs later this month". (email) Derek Hammer noted that my archival non-group claim for 1999 Dec 03 is actually SOHO-177. SOHO was rolled by an angle of ~75 deg at that time.

04.04.2002 I found a realtime C2 Kreutz sungrazer (C/2002 G2 MPEC 2002-G28), which showed a double nucleus. Later, I found another Kreutz group comet in C2 images of 1999 Nov 26 10:32 - 11:54 (MPEC 2002-G45).

02.04.2002 I found a non-group comet in C2 images of 1999 Dec 03 21:30 - 23:30 and a second non-group comet in C2 realtime images (C/2002 G1 MPEC 2002-G13).

31.03.2002 I found a Marsden group comet in C2 images of 1999 Oct 24 11:06 - 20:06. I think that these are additional images of C/1999 U2 which was only seen in C3 (Oct 25 05:18 - 17:42) until now.

2002 Apr 12 SOHO-423