[IAUC] CBET 2585: 20101213 : COMET P/2010 W1 (GIBBS)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 2585
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/2010 W1 (GIBBS)
     A. R. Gibbs, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, reports his discovery of
a comet (discovery observation tabulated below) on Catalina Sky Survey images
obtained with the 0.68-m Schmidt telescope; four co-added 20-s discovery
exposures show a "fuzzy" coma of diameter 8" (and magnitude 18.1-18.6) with no
visible tail (FWHM larger than nearby stars of similar magnitude).  Four
additional co-added 60-s exposures by Gibbs from Nov. 27.25 UT show the coma
size as 11' x 8'.5, elongated in the direction of motion (p.a. 85 deg), again
with no visible tail.

     2010 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Nov. 27.19184    0 28 06.74   + 2 48 02.9   18.3   Gibbs

     This object was identified by T. B. Spahr on the Minor Planet Center's
"Daily Orbit Update" for Nov. 28 (MPEC 2010-W45) with the following objects
that had received minor-planet designations:  1996 TT65, 2010 MS75, 2010 RR59,
2010 RN141, 2010 SQ31, and 2010 TL69.  Astrometry, the following elliptical
orbital elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2010-X102.

                    Epoch = 2011 Feb.  8.0 TT
     T = 2011 Feb.  8.7360 TT         Peri. = 209.9164
     e = 0.640494                     Node  = 207.7835  2000.0
     q = 2.146935 AU                  Incl. =   6.3704
       a =  5.971900 AU    n = 0.0675360    P =  14.594 years



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                         (C) Copyright 2010 CBAT
2010 December 13                 (CBET 2585)              Daniel W. E. Green