[IAUC] CBET 3047: 20120316 : COMET C/2012 E2 (SWAN)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3047
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  Daniel W. E. Green; Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
e-mail:  cbatiau en eps.harvard.edu (alternate cbat en iau.org)
URL http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


COMET C/2012 E2 (SWAN)
     Vladimir Bezugly (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine) found a potential cometary
object in three SWAN ultraviolet images obtained with the SOHO spacecraft,
noting the object to be located at solar elongation around 25 deg and close to
the Kreutz-group comet tracks.  Bezugly and Michal Kusiak (Zywiec, Poland)
reported the positions below from the poor-scale SWAN images, with Kusiak
guessing that the SWAN magnitude might correspond to a total visual magnitude
of 8 or 9:

     2011 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.
     Mar.  4.5        0 59.0       -11 41
           5.5        0 56.0       -10 57
           6.5        0 52.0       -10 11
           7.5        0 47.5       - 9 35

Rob Matson (Newport Coast, CA, U.S.A.) provided his own rough positions
for the presumed comet, as given below.

     2012 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.
     Mar.  4.5        1 00.9       -11 32
           5.5        0 55.9       -10 54
           6.5        0 52.0       -10 09
           7.5        0 47.1       - 8 55

K. Battams has provided SOHO measurements from March 13 (with no mention
of the physical appearance of the presumed comet), which have been
reduced by G. V. Williams and published, together with the following
parabolic orbital elements, on MPEC 2012-F02.

     T = 2012 Mar. 15.031 TT          Peri. =  83.343
                                      Node  =   7.708   2000.0
     q = 0.00695 AU                   Incl. = 144.222


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 March 16                    (CBET 3047)              Daniel W. E. Green