H2O(+) production rates of Comets Austin 1990 V and P/Halley 1986 III

High-spectral-resolution scans of H2O(+) emissions from Austin 1990 V were obtained. A simple model of the ion distribution in the FOV is used to determine a lower limit phi(H2O+) to the H2O(+) ion flux away from the nucleus for each night of observations. A similar analysis is applied to previous observations of H2O(+) emissions from Comet P/Halley 1986 III. It is found that the mean ratio is phi(H2O+)/Q(H2O) is 1.2 x exp -3 for Halley (solar minimum) and 2.6 x 10 exp -3 for Austin (solar maximum).