Electronic Telegram No. 3051
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 F3 (PANSTARRS)
     Richard Wainscoat and Marco Micheli report the discovery of a comet in
four exposures taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at Haleakala
(discovery observations tabulated below), with the object appearing slightly
extended compared to adjacent stars in images taken with the w filter; they
obtained follow-up observations using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (+ r
filter) on Mar. 17.5 UT (queue observer Peter Forshay) that show the object to
be distinctly extended (the coma having a full-width-at-half-maximum of
approximately 1.7 arcsec, with adjacent stars having FWHM = 1".0), with a
subtle hint of a tail extending to the northwest.

     2012 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Mar. 16.32445   10 49 30.99   + 6 59 23.0   21.0
          16.33874   10 49 30.71   + 6 59 25.0   21.0
          16.35303   10 49 30.46   + 6 59 26.9   21.2
          16.36737   10 49 30.18   + 6 59 28.6   21.2

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements
by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2012-F32.

     T = 2015 Apr.  4.722 TT          Peri. = 103.719
                                      Node  = 164.655   2000.0
     q = 3.47532 AU                   Incl. =  11.274


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.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 3051)              Daniel W. E. Green