[IAUC] CBET 3917: 20140701 : COMET C/2014 M3 (CATALINA)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3917
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 M3 (CATALINA)
     An apparently asteroidal object found by R. A. Kowalski on CCD images
taken with the Catalina Sky Survey 0.68-m Schmidt telescope on June 26.4 UT
(discovery observations tabulated below) has been found to show cometary
appearance by CCD astrometrists elsewhere after the object was posted on
the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     June 26.40045    0 11 51.78   +18 34 53.3   19.2   Kowalski
          26.40849    0 11 51.07   +18 34 55.3   19.3     "
          26.41253    0 11 50.68   +18 34 54.4   19.6     "

S. Gajdos writes that images taken on June 27.02-27.05 UT with a 0.6-m f/5.5
reflector at Modra, Slovakia, show a diffuse appearance with a condensed coma
that is elongated in p.a. around 250-260 deg, with a weak sign of a short fan
tail in the same direction.  H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, writes that twelve stacked
60-s exposures taken with an iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph (+ luminance
filter) at Siding Spring on June 27.8 show a faint and moderately condensed
coma 25" in diameter (w-band mag 18.1 as measured within a circular aperture
of radius 14".7) but no tail.

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements
by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-N03.

     T = 2014 June 18.8825 TT         Peri. =  91.9448
                                      Node  =  79.8085  2000.0
     q = 2.447619 AU                  Incl. = 164.9119


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 July 1                      (CBET 3917)              Daniel W. E. Green