[IAUC] CBET 3906: 20140618 : COMET P/2014 L4 = P/2008 Q2 (ORY)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3906
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 L4 = P/2008 Q2 (ORY)
     H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, reports the recovery of comet P/2008 Q2 (cf. IAUC
8967) on CCD images taken with an iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph at Siding
Spring on June 2, when Sato noted the comet to be moderately condensed with a
coma 10" in diameter but with no tail visible in five stacked 60-s exposures;
the w-band magnitude tabulated below was measured within a circular aperture
of radius 6".6.  Follow-up images on June 8 (when he stacked twelve 60-s
images taken in bad seeing) and June 17 (when he stacked twenty-four 30-s
images taken in moonlight) showed nothing more than stellar appearance.
Sato's astrometry is tabulated below.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     June  2.79341    0 34 04.50   + 0 58 11.8          Sato
           2.79508    0 34 04.78   + 0 58 13.6   19.3     "
           8.78384    0 50 40.51   + 2 42 12.8            "
           8.78635    0 50 40.96   + 2 42 15.0            "
           8.78886    0 50 41.43   + 2 42 17.4   20.4     "
          17.76644    1 16 23.62   + 5 20 05.9            "
          17.76923    1 16 24.14   + 5 20 09.4            "
          17.77202    1 16 24.60   + 5 20 12.7   20.5     "

The comet is very close to the prediction by B. G. Marsden on MPC 65935, with
Delta (T) < 0.01 day.  The following linked orbital elements by G. V. Williams
are from 987 observations spanning 2008 Aug. 27-2014 June 17:

                    Epoch = 2014 Aug. 11.0 TT
     T = 2014 Aug. 24.57738 TT        Peri. = 329.72110
     e = 0.5738214                    Node  =  60.67873 2000.0
     q = 1.3817614 AU                 Incl. =   2.75399
       a =  3.2422117 AU   n = 0.16882704   P =   5.84 years


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 June 18                     (CBET 3906)              Daniel W. E. Green