[IAUC] CBET 3800: 20140205 : COMET P/2014 C1 (TOTAS)

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                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3800
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/2014 C1 (TOTAS)
     [Editor's note:  this text replaces that on CBET 3799 (additional
discovery details reported).]
     Matthias Busch, Heppenheim, Germany, reports the discovery of a comet
(discovery observations tabulated below) showing a coma and a tail 10"-15"
long in p.a. 280-290 deg in the course of the Teide Observatory Tenerife
Asteroid Survey (TOTAS).  Rafal Reszelewski (Swidwin, Poland), one of a score
of people working in evaluating images, was assigned to review the specific
images of this object after they were automatically flagged by Busch's
software, and Reszelewski was the first to note the object's cometary
appearance on CCD images taken by Pablo Ruiz with a 1.0-m f/4.4 reflector at
the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station, Tenerife.  The survey
fields were planned by Busch after Detlef Koschny suggested in January that
TOTAS search closer to the sun; the discovery report and astrometry were
sent by Busch to the Central Bureau and the Minor Planet Center.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Feb.  1.23558   16 20 22.75   -19 37 46.0   19.3   Ruiz
           1.24716   16 20 24.50   -19 37 49.4   19.4     "
           1.25873   16 20 26.19   -19 37 52.6   19.1     "
           1.27030   16 20 27.92   -19 37 56.0   19.6     "

After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP and PCCP
webpages, it has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists
elsewhere.  H. Sato (Tokyo, Japan; using an iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph
+ broadband luminance filter at Siding Spring) reports that the object showed
a strongly condensed coma that was elongated westwards (6" x 12" in size) with
a fan-like tail 30" long towards p.a. 280 degrees on eight stacked 60-s
exposures taken on Feb. 1.74-1.75 UT; the magnitude as measured within a
circular aperture of radius 8".8 was 18.2.  Seventy-five co-added 20-s images
obtained by T. Linder and R. Holmes with a 0.41-m f/11 Ritchey-Chretien
telescope at Cerro Tololo on Feb. 2.4 (measured by Linder, Holmes, and K.
Baker) show an elongated coma of size 4" towards p.a. 100 degrees and 3"
towards p.a. 190 degrees with an apparent faint 0".5 tail along p.a. 90 deg.
     The available astrometry, the following preliminary elliptical orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-C11.

     T = 2013 Dec. 24.1252 TT         Peri. =  26.6173
     e = 0.503118                     Node  = 168.6278  2000.0
     q = 1.717778 AU                  Incl. =   2.6934
       a =  3.457117 AU    n = 0.1533320    P =   6.43 years


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

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 February 5                  (CBET 3800)              Daniel W. E. Green