[IAUC] CBET 4020: 20141121 : COMET C/2014 W3 (PANSTARRS)

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 4020
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 W3 (PANSTARRS)
     E. Schunova and R. Wainscoat report the discovery of another comet in
three w-band CCD exposures taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope at
Haleakala on Nov. 17 (discovery observations tabulated below); the object has
a non-stellar appearance, and there appears to be a broad, very-low-surface-
brightness tail towards the north.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Nov. 18.46607    7 41 11.06   +18 10 58.8   20.5
          18.47934    7 41 10.71   +18 10 54.8   20.9
          18.49257    7 41 10.33   +18 10 50.9   20.8

Wainscoat and M. Micheli report that three 60-s r-band follow-up exposures,
tracked at the rate of the comet by Wainscoat and A. Draginda with the 3.6-m
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea on Nov. 19.6 UT, show a broad,
fan-shaped tail extending 5" to the north with a small coma (FWHM about 1".1
in 0".75 seeing).
     After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP and PCCP
webpages, other CCD astrometrists have commented on the object's cometary
appearance.  G. Hug (Scranton, KS, U.S.A.; 0.56-m reflector; Nov. 19.4 UT)
writes that the object appears to have a faint, narrow, fan-shaped tail in
p.a. 0 deg -- perhaps as long as 40"-60".  W. H. Ryan (Magdalena Ridge
Observatory 2.4-m f/8.9 reflector; Nov. 19.4) notes that his R-band images
yield magnitude 20.2-20.3 and show a distinct, broad tail at p.a. about 355
deg.  H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, reports that twelve stacked 60-s exposures taken
with an iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph at Siding Spring on Nov. 19.7
show the comet to be strongly condensed with a faint coma 8" in diameter.

     The available astrometry, the following very preliminary parabolic orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-W56.

     T = 2014 Nov. 18.4331 TT         Peri. = 182.8924
                                      Node  = 286.5922  2000.0
     q = 6.421666 AU                  Incl. =  92.5091


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 November 21                 (CBET 4020)              Daniel W. E. Green