[IAUC] CBET 4028: 20141127 : COMET C/2014 W8 (PANSTARRS)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 4028
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 W8 (PANSTARRS)
     B. Bolin, E. Schunova, and R. Wainscoat report the discovery of another
comet in four w-band CCD exposures taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope
at Haleakala on Nov. 22 (discovery observations tabulated below), the object
showing a conspicuously non-stellar appearance with a condensed nuclear
condensation.  Follow-up images obtained on Nov. 24.4 UT show a condensed
nuclear condensation with a coma (FWHM of 1".5 compared to nearby stars
having FWHM of about 1".1), similar in brightness to the object two nights
earlier.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Nov. 22.42341    3 39 57.27   + 7 44 54.3   21.5
          22.43825    3 39 56.86   + 7 44 48.8   21.3
          22.45305    3 39 56.50   + 7 44 43.2   21.9
          22.46788    3 39 56.10   + 7 44 37.4   21.8

Wainscoat and M. Micheli obtained three 60-s exposures using the 3.6-m
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea on Nov. 25.5 UT (queue observer D.
Woodworth), in which the comet shows a diffuse appearance and an extended
point-spread function (with FWHM approximately 1".3, compared with 0".9 seeing
conditions measured via nearby stars on the same frames), the red magnitude
given as 21.1-21.2.  After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's
PCCP webpage, W. H. Ryan found a small, faint coma of mag 20.4-20.7 on R-band
CCD images taken on Nov. 26.13-26.15 with the Magdalena Ridge Observatory
2.4-m f/8.9 reflector.

     The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-W117.

     T = 2015 Sept. 7.6510 TT         Peri. = 232.3356
                                      Node  = 223.4179  2000.0
     q = 4.676971 AU                  Incl. =  37.9941


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 November 27                 (CBET 4028)              Daniel W. E. Green