Hi All,

Yes, I'm a long way behind on this, but I am working through it. This was very complicated... but we will begin with the easy ones: SOHO confirmations.

Soho#  Date/Time of Post  Discoverer     Tel     Group   Images of...
===================================================================== 
5176  Jan27,25 19:34:24   R.Pickard       C3     Kreutz  Jan27,25
5177  Feb01,25 20:50:55   J.Ruan          C3     Kreutz  Feb01-02,25
5178  Feb06,25 23:28:24   W.Boonplod      C3     Kreutz  Feb07,25
5179  Feb07,25 15:11:27   S.Liwo        C3,C2    Kreutz? Feb07,25
5180  Feb08,25 18:37:12   R.Pickard       C3     Kreutz  Feb08-09,24  
5181  Feb09,25 21:44:34   Z.Xu            C3     Kreutz  Feb10,25
5182  Feb14,25 02:51:31   J.Ruan         C3,G1   Kreutz  Feb14,25
5183* Feb14,25 08:40pm    J.Ruan         C3,G1   Kreutz  Feb15,25
5184  Feb25,25 00:04:32   W.Boonplod     C2,G1   Meyer   Feb25,25
5185  Feb26,25 15:38:49   S.Liwo         C3,G1   Kreutz  Feb26-27,25

These are the SOHO confirmations through February 2025. As I will mention below, I am anticipating corrections on this, but we shall see how it goes.

And now this...

CCOR#  Date/Time of Post  Discoverer     Tel     Group   Images of... Chat#
===================================================================== 
0001  Feb10,25 08:32pm    R.Pickard     G1,C3    Kreutz  Feb11,25     5946
0002  Feb11,25 12:26am    R.Pickard       G1     Kreutz  Feb11,25     5949
0003  Feb11,25 03:54am    R.Pickard       G1     Kreutz  Feb11,25     5950
0004  Feb16,25 08:20am    J.Ruan          G1     Kreutz  Feb16,25     5981
0005  Feb19,25 10:41am    J.Ruan          G1     Kreutz  Feb19,25     5987
0006  Feb22,25 04:30pm    R.Pickard     G1,C3    Kreutz  Feb22-23,25  5989
0007  Feb24,25 03:51am    R.Pickard     G1,C3    Kreutz  Feb24,25     5999
0008  Feb24,25 07:26pm    R.Pickard       G1     Kreutz  Feb24-25,25  6005
0009  Feb24,25 10:37pm    R.Pickard       G1     Kreutz  Feb25,25     6006
0010  Feb28,25 10:46am    Z.Xu            G1     Kreutz  Feb06,25     6037
0011  Mar07,25 09:42:15   J.Ruan          G1     Kreutz  Feb27,25
0012  Mar03,25 06:52pm    R.Pickard       G1     Kreutz  Mar03,25     6042
0013  Mar04,25 11:02pm    Ruan,Pickard    G1     Kreutz  Mar05,25     6043
0014  Mar06,25 07:09am    J.Ruan          G1     Kreutz  Mar06,25     6050
0015  Mar06,25 06:16pm    J.Ruan          G1     Kreutz  Mar06-07,25  6057
0016  Mar07,25 18:26:03   J.Ruan          G1     Kreutz  Mar07-08,25  
--  

I will begin with many congratulations to Robert for making the first ever comet discovery using GOES-19/CCOR-1 observations!

In addition to the image above, I have created this short mp4 animation (9MB .mp4; right-click and 'Save as...'). It is certainly not the biggest or brightest comet that CCOR-1 will ever see (though check out the front page of our CCOR1 website and you'll see one that probably is!). But historically it does represent a new milestone, not only for the Sungrazer Project and NOAA/GOES-19, but arguably for planetary science as a whole. "Operational" (versus "research") coronagraphs are undoubtedly the future of white-light coronagraph observations for the foreseeable future -- perhaps decades to come! Thus, we will inevitably see the time come that the SOHO mission ends, and the new generation of coronagraphs are solely responsible for cataloging these small-but-important near-Sun and sungrazing objects. Comet 'CCOR-0001' is the first step along that new path.

And as a reminder: discovering, cataloging, and studying these comets has benefits to both planetary science research and heliophysics. The latter is not always as widely realized, but studying comets and asteroids in the extreme near-Sun environment provides unique data points regarding the near-Sun conditions, solar outflows, turbulence, coronal magnetic fields, and more, all of which provide valuable supplement to research regarding space weather prediction and forecasting. So the comet discoveries made in these images -- past, present, and future -- are highly valued, and you are all contributors to that.

Now, on to programmatic things... These confirmations are only through early March 2025 -- approximately when the website report form began accepting CCOR discoveries. I am slowly working through the rest of the month (and other months) but wanted to get these out today, because it has been so long since any were posted. You will also note that I am using "G1" to signify "GOES-19/CCOR-1" images. I couldn't think of any better way to abbreviate the telescope, as "C1" would be confusing with LASCO C1 (not operational, admittedly) or STEREO/SECCHI COR-1 (admittedly also not a comet discoverer). We might rethink this naming at some point, but for now it works.

I was not able to confirm the following CCOR-1 reports:
6012 (J.Ruan, 2025-02-25)
6016 (R.Pickard, 2025-02-25)
6041 (R.Pickard, 2025-03-02)
6049 (R.Pickard, 2025-03-06)

There may be some reports I have missed, and/or I may have not been looking in the correct location for the above comets. I am working with the full-size CCOR images, and these early discoveries were made with oddly-shaped processed images, leading to much confusion about coordinates. I suspect we will have to deal with this confusion for some time to come... So I just ask that you please be forgiving of any errors you think have been made here, and reach out to me with your corrections. I also strongly encourage continued conversations on the group chat page, where myself, NOAA project management, and other mission scientists are often following along.

As always, please email me with any questions, comments, complaints, or concerns.

Karl