Electronic Telegram No. 3019
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@eps.harvard.edu (alternate cbat@iau.org)
URL http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


COMET C/2012 C2 (BRUENJES)
     Manfred Bruenjes, Warrensburg, MO, USA, reports his discovery of an
apparent comet with a coma diameter of 60" and no discernible tail on 30-s
CCD exposures taken on two nights with a 0.36-m f/2.0 Schmidt-Cassegrain
reflector (discovery observations tabulated below).  After posting on the
Minor Planet Center's NEOCP, numerous other CCD astrometrists have also
commented on the object's cometary appearance.  Y. Ikari (Moriyama, Shiga-Ken,
Japan; 0.26-m f/7 reflector; Feb. 12.4 UT) reports total red mag 12.9-13.1
and coma diameter 1'.5-1'.7.  S. Nakano, Sumoto, Japan, reports that H. Abe
(Matsue-shi, Shimane-ken, Japan; 0.26-m f/6 reflector) measured total mag 12.3
and coma diameter 2'.5 on Feb. 12.45.  Nakano also reports the presence of a
faint tail 10" long toward the east on images taken by S. Urakawa and N.
Hashimoto with the Bisei Spaceguard Center's 1.0-m f/3 reflector on Feb. 12.5.
A. Novichonok (Kondopoga, Russia) writes that six stacked 120-s images taken
remotely by V. Gerke (Moscow, Russia) with the 0.4-m f/8 "Jigit" reflector at
the TAU station of Ka-Dar Observatory (near Nizhniy Arkhyz, Russia) on Feb.
12.7 show a large, 7'-diameter, very diffuse, round coma of total mag 10.6.
Vitali Nevski (Vitebsk, Belarus) notes that ten stacked 120-s CCD exposures
taken with a 0.3-m f/5 reflector on Feb. 12.71 show a 3' coma; visually on
Feb. 12.72, Nevski found a 5' coma of total mag 11.5.  R. Ligustri (Talmassons,
Udine, Italy) measured a large, diffuse coma of diameter 150" on twelve
stacked 60-s images taken on Feb. 12.8 with a 0.43-m f/6.8 reflector at the
RAS Observatory near Nerpio, Spain.

     2012 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Feb. 11.13788    1 59 58.59   +18 13 47.4   15.3   Bruenjes
          11.15318    1 59 54.16   +18 13 36.6   15.1     "
          11.16761    1 59 49.74   +18 13 27.4   15.7     "
          12.04649    1 55 47.89   +18 04 53.5   14.2     "
          12.06036    1 55 44.29   +18 04 43.1   15.1     "
          12.07392    1 55 40.81   +18 04 33.7   14.9     "
          12.08773    1 55 37.11   +18 04 28.8   14.3     "

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital
elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2012-C44:

     T = 2012 Mar. 12.847 TT          Peri. =  62.956
                                      Node  = 117.756   2000.0
     q = 0.80191 AU                   Incl. = 162.712


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

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 February 12                 (CBET 3019)              Daniel W. E. Green