[IAUC] CBET 3269: 20121025 : COMET P/2012 TB_36 (LEMMON)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3269
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 TB_36 (LEMMON)
    An apparently asteroidal object discovered on images taken on Oct. 5 by
S. M. Larson in the course of the Mount Lemmon Survey (discovery observations
tabulated below), and given the minor-planet designation 2012 TB_36 by the
Minor Planet Center, has been found to show cometary appearance elsewhere.
Marco Micheli and Richard Wainscoat report that images obtained on Oct. 9 UT
with the PanSTARRS1 telescope at Haleakala show its point-spread function to
have a full-width-at-half-maximum of about 1".25, compared with about 0".8
for nearby stellar objects, with a faint 4" tail at p.a. about 225 degrees.
Additional images obtained by Garrett Elliott with the University of Hawaii
2.2-m telescope on Oct. 17 UT confirm the cometary nature:  the object shows
a faint 4" tail toward p.a. about 240 deg; the PSF has FWHM 1".6, while
nearby stars in the same images typically have a FWHM of 1".3.

     2012 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Oct.  5.29464    0 32 49.02   + 3 33 19.2   19.9   Larson
           5.30138    0 32 48.80   + 3 33 18.6   20.1     "
           5.30819    0 32 48.58   + 3 33 18.0   20.2     "
           5.31507    0 32 48.37   + 3 33 16.7   20.1     "

The available astrometry (including pre-discovery Mt. Lemmon observations
obtained on Sept. 17), the following elliptical orbital elements by G. V.
Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2012-U95.

     T = 2013 July 18.7558 TT         Peri. =  36.4000
     e = 0.384393                     Node  =   9.5860  2000.0
     q = 4.266327 AU                  Incl. =   6.9710
       a =  6.930275 AU    n = 0.0540230    P =  18.24 years


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
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                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 October 25                  (CBET 3269)              Daniel W. E. Green