Abstract
Light scattering properties of cometary dust in coma have been investigated well. However, that of dust particles in cometary dust trail have not been examined yet because of its faintness in optical wavelength. We observed 2P/Encke for a total of 15 nights over the period of 2002 September 9 - 2004 September 9. The observations were carried out using 2k CCD camera mounted on Kiso 1.05-m Schmidt telescope and 8k mosaic CCD camera mounted on University of Hawaii 2.24-m telescope. All data were taken with R-band filter. The 2P/Encke trail was detected at 5 different epochs. The range of the heliocentric distance, the geocentric distance, and the solar phase angle of 2P/Encke, where the trail was detected, are 1.78-3.98 AU, 0.94-2.97 AU, and 1-26 degree, respectively. According to fitting of the syndyne curves, it was found that the trail is composed of particles whose size is larger than approximately 1 cm. It is likely that the scattering phase function of 2P/Encke trail particles is similar to that of nucleus of comet rather than that of dust particles in coma.
