The story about the recovery of comet Lagerkvist-Carsenty (P/1997 T3 )

The comet was discovered by Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist and Uri Carsenty in October 1997, it was observed until February 1999.

15 years later, on July 2014 –  There was a request from the comet discoverer Uri Carsenty himself to try the recovery of comet Lagerkvist-Carsenty during next ESA’s observation slot at Optical Ground Station in Tenerife (Spain).

Detlef Koschny, head of ESA’s space hazards programme, selected me to make the planning and analysing of the recovery :

2014-July-27

„Erwin,

… – this is clearly a task for our RECEX (recovery expert) = you 😉 We’ll see whether we can fit that in somewhere (even though it is not a NEO…)

Detlef.“

2014-July-29     I found an object about 10 arc minutes away from the predicted position of the comet. Because that object did not look like a comet. There was no tail and no coma visible. But the new orbit calculation I did with the Software findorb, including my measurements, showed definitely that it must be the comet Lagerkvist-Carsenty,  recovered 17 years after discovery.

Comet position measurements are collected from observers worldwide by the US-based Minor Planet Center, which acknowledged the recovery of Comet P/1997 T3 (Lagerkvist-Carsenty) by releasing the circular M.P.E.C. 2014-O65 announcing the new observations.

The recovery was also published in a CBET-circular of the IAU Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and as additional result of the recovery the comet has got its final numbering in the Minor Planet Circular 89093 (2014 Aug. 10) : 308P / 1997 T3 = 2014 O2 (Lagerkvist-Carsenty).