[IAUC] CBET 3254: 20121016 : COMET P/2012 T2 (PANSTARRS)

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                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3254
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 P/2012 T2 (PANSTARRS)
     Richard Wainscoat and Henry Hsieh report the discovery of a comet in four
w-band exposures taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at Haleakala
(discovery observations tabulated below); the object is obviously non-stellar
and has a very diffuse nuclear condensation with FWHM > 2" (seeing
approximately 1".2) and a diffuse tail extending to the northwest.  Hsieh
adds that follow-up images obtained by Sarah Sonnett and Megan Ansdell with
the University of Hawaii 2.2-m telescope on Mauna Kea on Oct. 14 UT, and by
Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo with the 6.5-m Magellan Baade telescope at
Las Campanas on Oct. 15, confirm that the object is clearly cometary; in the
deeper Magellan data, the comet exhibits a curved tail approximately 15" long,
initially aligned with a p.a. of about 340 degrees but then curving towards a
p.a. about 260 degrees.  After posting on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP
webpage, other CCD astrometrists have also commented on the object's
cometary appearance.  H. Sato (Tokyo, Japan; remotely using a 0.51-m f/6.8
astrograph at the RAS Observatory near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A.) found a 12"
coma of V-band magnitude 19.6 (as measured within a circular aperture of
radius 6".6) and a fan-like tail 25" long toward p.a. 330 degrees in images
taken on Oct. 11.2; his images from Oct. 14.3 show a diffuse coma of diameter
10" (V = 19.7 in a circular aperture of radius 4".9) with no obvious tail.
T. H. Bressi (Spacewatch 1.8-m f/2.7 reflector; Oct. 13.3 and 14.2) reports
the object as diffuse.

     2012 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Oct. 10.35956    0 31 52.16   -12 28 05.1   21.1
          10.37347    0 31 51.75   -12 28 06.6   21.0
          10.38740    0 31 51.31   -12 28 07.6   21.1
          10.40131    0 31 50.89   -12 28 09.2   21.0

The available astrometry, the following preliminary elliptical orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2012-U3.

     T = 2011 Aug. 29.4442 TT         Peri. = 253.7738
     e = 0.114565                     Node  =  72.3013  2000.0
     q = 4.884726 AU                  Incl. =  12.7695
       a =  5.516752 AU    n = 0.0760639    P =  13.0 years


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

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 October 16                  (CBET 3254)              Daniel W. E. Green