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H. Rauer, G. Hahn, A. Harris, J. Helbert, S. Mottola, J. Oberst (DLR, Institute of Space Sensor Technology and Planetary Exploration)
Comet Borrelly (19P/1904 Y2) is a potential target of the extended NASA Deep Space 1 mission. We have obtained photometric measurements of the comet in B, V and R filters on June 12/13, 1999 while it was at a distance of 5.4 AU from the Sun. The observations were performed with the 3.6m telescope and EFOSC 2 at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile. The comet appeared as a point source: no coma was apparent. We derive estimates of the size and color of the nucleus and analyse the intrinsic intensity variation in terms of a rotational lightcurve.