[IAUC] CBET 3472: 20130414 : COMET C/2013 G3 (PANSTARRS)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3472
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/2013 G3 (PANSTARRS)
     Richard Wainscoat, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, reports
the discovery of an apparent comet in images taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1
telescope on Haleakala (discovery positions tabulated below).  Marco Micheli
writes that he and Wainscoat obtained a set of 30-s follow-up images of the
object with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea around Apr. 13.35
UT, which show an extended shape, with a possible marginal detection of an
extension in p.a. about 200 deg.  After posting on the Minor Planet Center's
NEOCP webpage, E. Guido (Castellammare di Stabia, Italy) writes that eleven
stacked 50-s R-band images taken by N. Howes and himself remotely with the
2.0-m "Faulkes Telescope South" at Siding spring on Apr. 11.5 show it to be
slightly diffuse, of red mag 19.5-20.1, with FWHM about 20 percent wider than
images of nearby field stars of similar brightness.

     2013 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Apr. 10.42166   13 51 59.45   -10 53 05.0   20.7
          10.43528   13 51 59.07   -10 52 59.0   20.8
          10.44896   13 51 58.69   -10 52 52.8   20.8
          10.46267   13 51 58.30   -10 52 46.7   20.8

The available astrometry, the following preliminary elliptical orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2013-G73.

     T = 2015 Jan.  9.2132 TT         Peri. =  72.0872
     e = 0.580825                     Node  = 207.9240  2000.0
     q = 4.326343 AU                  Incl. =  55.2790
       a = 10.321084 AU    n = 0.0297246    P =  33.16 years


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2013 CBAT
2013 April 14                    (CBET 3472)              Daniel W. E. Green