[IAUC] CBET 3621: 20130807 : COMET C/2013 P2 (PANSTARRS)

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                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3621
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/2013 P2 (PANSTARRS)
     An apparently asteroidal object discovered with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1
telescope at Haleakala on Aug. 4 (discovery observations tabulated below,
together with pre-discovery Pan-STARRS1 observations from July 26 that were
found later by P. Veres), and posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP
webpage, has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists
elsewhere.  H. Sato (Tokyo, Japan; remotely with a 0.43-m f/6.8 astrograph
at the New Mexico Skies observatory near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A.; ten stacked 60-s
exposures; Aug. 5.3 UT) finds a completely stellar head with a faint 10" tail
toward p.a. 260 degrees.  Images taken by D. Abreu with the 1.0-m f/4.4
reflector of the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station at Tenerife on
Aug. 6.9 (measured by D. Koschny, A. Knoefel, M. Busch, and E. Schwab) show a
5" coma with a possible tail towards p.a. 300 deg and measured red mag 18.8
for the comet.  E. Guido and N. Howes write that their thirty stacked 40-s
R-band images taken remotely with an iTelescope-network 0.43-m f/6.8
astrograph at New Mexico Skies observatory on Aug. 6.3 show a coma about 5"
in diameter of mag 19.2-19.6, elongated in p.a. 120 deg.

     2013 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     July 26.51919   21 02 49.16   +39 06 33.0   19.5
          26.53014   21 02 47.35   +39 06 37.0   19.7
     Aug.  4.37493   20 37 27.24   +39 40 33.5   20.3
           4.38712   20 37 25.06   +39 40 34.6   20.5
           4.40919   20 37 21.10   +39 40 36.6   19.8

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements
by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2013-P42.

     T = 2014 Feb. 17.5087 TT         Peri. = 105.1972
                                      Node  =   2.0471  2000.0
     q = 2.829226 AU                  Incl. = 125.5478


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2013 CBAT
2013 August 7                    (CBET 3621)              Daniel W. E. Green