[IAUC] CBET 4030: 20141205 : COMET C/2014 W10 (PANSTARRS)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 4030
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 W10 (PANSTARRS)
     R. Wainscoat and R. Weryk 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. 25 (discovery observations tabulated below), the object appearing
slightly diffuse in each image.  M. Micheli and Wainscoat write that three
60-s images taken on Nov. 26.2 UT by Wainscoat and A. Draginda with the 3.6-m
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in 0".65 seeing show a diffuse coma with FWHM
about 0".95.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Nov. 25.25361    2 18 05.52   +30 22 04.4   21.2
          25.26554    2 18 05.07   +30 22 05.0   21.3
          25.27744    2 18 04.65   +30 22 04.9   21.4
          25.28933    2 18 04.22   +30 22 05.3   21.4

After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, other
CCD astrometrists reported on the object's cometary appearance.  W. H. Ryan
(Magdalena Ridge Observatory 2.4-m f/8.9 reflector) found the point-spread
function of the comet to be wider than nearby field stars, and it sported a
slight tail in p.a. about 125 deg in R-band images taken on Nov. 28.2 UT
(magnitude 20.5-20.6).  H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan (iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8
astrograph + luminance filter, located near Mayhill, NM, USA) found the comet
to be moderately condensed with a round outer coma 8" in diameter in ten
stacked 120-s exposures taken on Nov. 28.3.
     The available astrometry, the following preliminary elliptical orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-X31.

     T = 2015 Feb.  9.2460 TT         Peri. =  19.0119
     e = 0.603945                     Node  =  40.8627  2000.0
     q = 7.424758 AU                  Incl. =  72.9726
       a = 18.746799 AU    n = 0.0121426    P =  81.2 years


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 December 5                  (CBET 4030)              Daniel W. E. Green