Electronic Telegram No. 3050
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 F2 (PANSTARRS)
     Peter Veres and Larry Denneau report the discovery of a possible comet
with an extended point-spread function on images taken with the 1.8-m
Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at Haleakala (discovery observations tabulated below);
the FWHM of the object in images is slightly larger than those of nearby field
stars.  Marco Micheli and Richard Wainscoat obtained observations using the
3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (+ r filter) on Mar. 17.5 UT (queue
observer Peter Forshay).  Three 60-s exposures show a small coma with a tail
extending approximately 10" from the nuclear condensation at position angle
approximately 300 degrees.

     2012 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Mar. 16.49295   12 04 56.43   -15 08 13.5   19.8
          16.50459   12 04 56.04   -15 08 10.4   19.9
          16.51641   12 04 55.66   -15 08 07.4   19.7
          16.52914   12 04 55.24   -15 08 04.1   19.6

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements
by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2012-F31; it is likely that
this comet is of short period.

     T = 2011 July 27.510 TT          Peri. = 227.310
                                      Node  = 249.597   2000.0
     q = 2.41663 AU                   Incl. =  10.544


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 March 18                    (CBET 3050)              Daniel W. E. Green