[IAUC] CBET 4023: 20141122 : COMET C/2014 W5 (LEMMON-PANSTARRS)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 4023
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 W5 (LEMMON-PANSTARRS)
     R. J. Wainscoat and R. Weryk report the discovery of yet another comet in
four w-band CCD exposures taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope at
Haleakala on Nov. 20; the object has a slightly diffuse appearance, and there
is a faint tail extending for approximately 5" towards p.a. approximately 30
degrees in each images.  The object was also discovered on two nights (Nov. 16
and 17) by the Mount Lemmon Survey (observer A. D. Grauer) as apparently
asteroidal (reported as a near-earth object but did not score high enough to
be posted automatically on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage).  The
discovery observations are tabulated below.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Nov. 16.29308    3 58 46.07   +15 21 15.9   19.7   Grauer
          16.29765    3 58 45.76   +15 21 14.0   20.1     "
          16.30222    3 58 45.45   +15 21 12.4   19.8     "
          17.38727    3 57 23.25   +15 12 59.2   20.3     "
          17.39262    3 57 22.89   +15 12 57.5   19.9     "
          17.39797    3 57 22.39   +15 12 54.3   20.4     "
          17.40335    3 57 22.02   +15 12 52.2   19.9     "
          20.47976    3 53 26.93   +14 49 19.3   21.4   Pan-STARRS1
          20.49097    3 53 26.06   +14 49 14.2   21.6     "
          20.50219    3 53 25.20   +14 49 09.0   21.3     "
          20.51339    3 53 24.32   +14 49 03.8   21.3     "

Wainscoat and M. Micheli report that three 60-s r-band follow-up exposures,
tracked at the rate of the comet by Wainscoat and D. Woodworth with the 3.6-m
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea on Nov. 21.34 UT, show the object
as having a slightly diffuse appearance, and a tail extending for
approximately 7" toward p.a. approximately 40 degrees.
     After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage,
other CCD astrometrists have also commented on the object's cometary
appearance.  W. H. Ryan (Magdalena Ridge Observatory 2.4-m f/8.9 reflector +
R-band filter) notes a tail in p.a. about 45 deg (and gives the magnitude as
20.3-20.4) on images obtained on Nov. 21.3 UT.  J. V. Scotti, Lunar and
Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, writes that images taken with
the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope at Kitt Peak on Nov. 21.4 show a coma of
diameter 5" and red mag 19.0, with a tail extending 0'.4 in p.a. 41 deg.  H.
Sato, Tokyo, Japan, writes that sixteen stacked 60-s exposures taken with an
iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph (+ luminance filter) at Siding Spring on
Nov. 21.6 shows the comet to be moderately condensed with a coma 8" in
diameter and no tail; the w-band magnitude was 19.6 as measured within a
circular aperture of radius 6".6.
     The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-W68.

     T = 2016 Feb. 11.3558 TT         Peri. = 277.2202
                                      Node  = 245.5431  2000.0
     q = 2.579417 AU                  Incl. = 146.2761


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

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 November 22                 (CBET 4023)              Daniel W. E. Green