[IAUC] CBET 3049: 20120318 : COMET C/2012 F1 (GIBBS)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3049
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 F1 (GIBBS)
     A. R. Gibbs reports his discovery of an apparent comet with a 8" coma and
a 12" tail in p.a. 80 degrees on four co-added CCD images (discovery
astrometry tabulated below) obtained with the Catalina 0.68-m Schmidt
telescope in good seeing.  After posting on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP
webpage, other CCD astrometrists have commented on the object's cometary
appearance.  M. Tichy reports that images taken by J. Ticha, M. Honkova, M.
Kocer, and himself with the 1.06-m KLENOT telescope at the Klet Observatory
on Mar. 16.95 UT show the object to be diffuse with a faint 15" coma.
R-band images taken by W. H. Ryan and E. V. Ryan with the Magdalena Ridge
Observatory 2.4-m f/8.9 reflector on Mar. 17.2 show a distinct coma and wide
tail toward p.a. about 50 deg.  H. Sato (Tokyo, Japan) writes that fifteen
stacked 60-s exposures taken on Mar. 17.2 with a 0.25-m f/3.4 astrograph at
the RAS Observatory near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A., show a moderately condensed
coma 20" in diameter with total V-band magnitude of 19.3 as measured within
a circular aperture of radius 10".

     2012 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Mar. 16.27951   11 20 08.84   -23 25 53.9   18.7   Gibbs
          16.28757   11 20 06.71   -23 25 38.1            "
          16.29557   11 20 04.77   -23 25 20.9            "
          16.30355   11 20 02.73   -23 25 03.5   18.3     "

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements
by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2012-F30.

     T = 2012 Feb. 21.182 TT          Peri. = 300.968
                                      Node  = 129.840   2000.0
     q = 2.55872 AU                   Incl. = 159.407


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 March 18                    (CBET 3049)              Daniel W. E. Green