[IAUC] CBET 3559: 20130615 : COMET P/2003 BM_80 = (323137) 2003 BM_80

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                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3559
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/2003 BM_80 = (323137) 2003 BM_80
     Bryce Bolin, Larry Denneau, and Peter Veres write that w-band images of
minor planet (323137) that were taken on 2013 June 12 UT with the Pan-STARRS1
telescope on Halekala show an extended point-spread function in excess of 2".5
FWHM when compared to nearby stars with PSF widths of approximately 1".2 FWHM.
Henry Hsieh and Marco Micheli add that Hsieh, Denneau, and Richard Wainscoat
had found this object to appear active as an apparent comet on Pan-STARRS
images taken on 2012 Mar. 27, when the object showed a PSF width larger than
2" under 1".3 seeing conditions; on the following day (Mar. 28), Micheli,
Wainscoat, Hsieh, and Bolin looked at follow-up observations obtained with the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (queue observer Lisa Wells) that showed an
extended coma and a faint tail 15" long to the west-northwest.  The apparently
asteroidal object that was orginally designated 2003 BM_80 by the Minor
Planet Center (on MPS 71979) was discovered by B. Skiff in the course of the
LONEOS survey ten years ago; it was subsequently linked to an independent
discovery made two months later by the LINEAR survey that was given the
minor-planet designation 2003 FV_112 (the two discovery observations being
tabulated below), and extensive observations eventually led to the assignment
of the permanent minor-planet number (323137).

     2003 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Jan. 31.39301   11 09 55.07   + 9 48 11.3   19.0   Skiff
     Mar. 30.24188   10 36 29.00   +12 14 32.9   19.7   LINEAR

Orbital elements published on MPO 232465 give T = 2013 Jan. 14.903 TT, q =
3.45086 AU, e = 0.18815, Peri. = 217.081 deg, Node = 9.392 deg, i = 5.810 deg
(equinox 2000.0), epoch 2013 Apr. 18.0 TT, P = 8.76 yr (from observations
spanning 2001-2012); G. V. Williams notes that the Jupiter MOID is 0.16 AU.


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                         (C) Copyright 2013 CBAT
2013 June 15                     (CBET 3559)              Daniel W. E. Green