[IAUC] CBET 3810: 20140220 : COMET C/2014 C3 (NEOWISE)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3810
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/2014 C3 (NEOWISE)
     James Bauer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports the discovery of a comet
on stacked 3.4- and 4.6-micron images (discovery observations tabulated below)
obtained with the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (or
NEOWISE; formerly the WISE satellite), the object described as extended with a
tail approximately 30" due west; the estimated R-band magnitude based on
preliminary analysis is around 16.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.
     Feb. 14.70973   15 29 12.48   -18 03 42.5
          15.17082   15 28 22.12   -17 51 48.3

After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP and PCCP
webpages, ground-based CCD astrometrists have also commented on the object's
cometary appearance.  J.-F. Soulier writes that stacked images taken with a
0.4-m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien telescope at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, on
Feb. 19.31-19.39 UT show a coma of size 15" x 17" with a 53" tail having
structures spanning p.a. 313-200 deg; the magnitude was given as 17.5 in a
5".5 aperture.  T. Lister notes that nine stacked 65-s V-band images taken
on Feb. 19.4 with a 1.0-m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien reflector (Las Cumbres
Observatory Global Telescope) at Cerro Tololo show a diffuse coma about 9" in
diameter with central condensation and magnitude 18.6-18.7.

The available astrometry, the following parabolic orbital elements by G. V.
Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-D11.

     T = 2014 Jan. 17.8514 TT         Peri. = 346.4752
                                      Node  = 204.4705  2000.0
     q = 1.867545 AU                  Incl. = 151.8317


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 February 20                 (CBET 3810)              Daniel W. E. Green