[IAUC] CBET 3379: 20130110 : COMET P/2012 WA_34 (LEMMON-PANSTARRS)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3379
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 WA_34 (LEMMON-PANSTARRS)
     Peter Veres, Marco Micheli, and Richard Wainscoat, Institute for
Astronomy, University of Hawaii, report their discovery of an object with
an extended shape and a hint of a wide tail towards the east in images taken
on Jan. 7 with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope on Haleakala (observers N.
Primak, A. Schultz, S. Watters, and T. Goggia); follow-up observations
obtained on Jan. 8 and 9 by Wainscoat, Micheli, and P. Forshay (and measured
by Micheli and Veres) with the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope again
show the extended shape and the suspected tail.  Micheli added that he
suggested identification with an apparently asteroidal object reported on
two nights in late 2012 with the 1.5-m reflector of the Mount Lemmon Survey
(observers A. Boattini and R. A. Kowalski) and designated 2012 WA_34 by the
Minor Planet Center.  The relevant astrometry is tabulated below:

     2012 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Nov. 26.39929    5 21 12.67   +20 19 28.7   20.5   Boattini
          26.40647    5 21 12.34   +20 19 29.3   20.3     "
          26.42243    5 21 11.77   +20 19 29.5   20.0     "
          26.42965    5 21 11.44   +20 19 30.1   20.8     "
     Dec.  3.33757    5 16 36.69   +20 25 27.3   20.1   Kowalski
           3.34464    5 16 36.33   +20 25 27.4   20.4     "
           3.35167    5 16 36.01   +20 25 27.3   18.9     "
           3.35882    5 16 35.79   +20 25 28.7   19.6     "

     2013 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Jan.  7.24713    4 54 20.42   +21 03 14.6   21.1   Primak
           7.26483    4 54 19.95   +21 03 15.9   21.4     "
           7.28178    4 54 19.45   +21 03 17.4   21.1     "
           8.37127    4 53 52.04   +21 04 48.5   21.3   Wainscoat
           8.37321    4 53 51.99   +21 04 48.7   20.9     "
           8.37516    4 53 51.94   +21 04 48.9   21.2     "
           9.20451    4 53 32.36   +21 05 59.0   21.2     "
           9.20646    4 53 32.32   +21 05 59.2   21.2     "
           9.20883    4 53 32.25   +21 05 59.4   21.2     "

The available astrometry (including prediscovery Pan-STARRS observations
from 2011 Sept. 26, identified by T. Spahr, Minor Planet Center), the
following elliptical orbital elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris
appear on MPEC 2013-A66.

                    Epoch = 2013 Jan. 28.0 TT
     T = 2013 Jan. 24.74404 TT        Peri. = 353.15911
     e = 0.3396965                    Node  =  94.52339 2000.0
     q = 3.1734210 AU                 Incl. =   6.11886
       a =  4.8060039 AU   n = 0.09354658   P =  10.54 years


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

                         (C) Copyright 2013 CBAT
2013 January 10                  (CBET 3379)              Daniel W. E. Green