[IAUC] CBET 3919: 20140707 : COMET C/2014 N2 (PANSTARRS)

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                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3919
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 N2 (PANSTARRS)
     R. Wainscoat reports that S. Chastel, B. Bolin, and he have found an
object with a distinctly non-stellar appearance on four w-band CCD exposures
taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope at Haleakala (discovery
observations tabulated below); the object appears to have a broad, low-
surface-brightness tail extending approximately 15" toward p.a. approximately
285 degrees.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     July  2.54851   22 38 00.20   -30 22 45.3   19.6
           2.55840   22 37 59.20   -30 23 12.1   19.7
           2.56831   22 37 58.20   -30 23 38.9   19.7
           2.57820   22 37 57.23   -30 24 05.8   19.7

M. Micheli writes that three 60-s r-band exposures taken by Wainscoat on July
3.5 UT (queue observer D. Woodworth) with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
were analyzed by Micheli, Wainscoat, and P. Veres, revealing a broad tail
approximately 15" long directed toward p.a. about 290 deg with a small coma.
After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, H. Sato
(Tokyo, Japan) noted that his sixteen stacked 20-s exposures taken on July 3.6
with an iTelescope 0.70-m f/6.6 astrograph (+ luminance filter) at Siding
Spring shows a strongly condensed coma 12" in diameter with a hint of tail 10"
long toward p.a. 270 degrees; the w-band magnitude was 18.0 as measured within
a circular aperture of radius 6".5.
     The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-N44.

     T = 2014 Oct.  9.9796 TT         Peri. = 238.8660
                                      Node  = 143.8320  2000.0
     q = 2.168178 AU                  Incl. = 133.1471


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 July 7                      (CBET 3919)              Daniel W. E. Green