Discovery
IAU Circular No. 3638 (1981 Sep. 14) announced the discovery by Peter Stattmayer (Herrsching, Germany) of a comet in the vicinity of the galaxy M33. It was found on two 25-minute exposures obtained with a 0.3-m f/6 reflector on 1981 September 6. Prints received at the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams on September 10 each showed a diffuse, but condensed trail with a tail extending about 50 arc seconds toward the south-southeast. The magnitude was given as 13. R. M. West (European Southern Observatory) examined the original negatives and measured two precise positions.
Positions
Analysis
Despite the inspection of the negatives and prints by other experienced sources, the comet was never confirmed. The same Circular that announced the discovery also noted that C.-Y. Shao (Oak Ridge Observatory, Massachusetts, USA) did not detect the comet on an 8-minute exposure obtained with the 0.4-m astrograph. Shao noted the presence of strong moonlight and said stars to magnitude 14 were visible.
IAU Circular No. 3642 (1981 Oct. 26) included additional negative reports. West reported that he inspected a photograph taken of M33 on September 7.07 by J. Linder (Ettlingen, Germany). Although it showed stars to magnitude 15.5, the comet was not shown. A wide-field exposure was made with the 1.20-m Schmidt telescope by J. Gibson (Palomar Observatory, California, USA) on September 20. It had a limiting magnitude of 18-19, but no trace of the comet was found. Another wide-field exposure was obtained by B. Skiff (Lowell Observatory, Arizona, USA) using the 0.3-m astrograph on September 22, but it also revealed nothing cometary.
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