[IAUC] CBET 3390: 20130123 : COMET C/2013 B2 (CATALINA)

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                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3390
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 B2 (CATALINA)
     An apparently asteroidal object discovered on images taken by J. A.
Johnson with the Catalina Sky Survey's 0.68-m Schmidt telescope (discovery
observations tabulated below), and posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP
webpage, has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists
elsewhere.  William H. Ryan (Magdalena Ridge Observatory, 2.4-m f/8.9
reflector) writes that the object's point-spread function was consistently
greater than that of nearby field stars in R-band images taken on Jan. 16.34-
16.37 and 17.1 UT; there was a trace of a tail in p.a. 270 deg on the second
night.  E. Guido, Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, communicates that
twenty-two stacked 50-s R-band exposures taken remotely by P. Benson, C.
Everall, N. Howes, A. Tripp, and himself on Jan. 23.5 with the 2.0-m f/10
"Faulkes Telescope North" at Haleakala show the object to be slightly diffuse
when compared to nearby field stars of similar brightness, with an elongation
toward p.a. 220 deg; the object's magnitude was measured to be 18.5-18.9.

     2013 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Jan. 16.23384    7 33 36.54   +65 48 02.2   18.9   Johnson
          16.23935    7 33 35.89   +65 48 00.1   19.4     "
          16.24490    7 33 35.38   +65 47 58.0   19.4     "
          16.25039    7 33 35.02   +65 47 56.0   19.5     "

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements
by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2013-B84.

     T = 2013 June 30.5906 TT         Peri. = 156.1431
                                      Node  = 331.7963  2000.0
     q = 3.753316 AU                  Incl. =  43.5623


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2013 CBAT
2013 January 23                  (CBET 3390)              Daniel W. E. Green