Electronic Telegram No. 3178
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 P/2012 NJ (LA SAGRA)
     An apparently asteroidal object found on CCD images taken in the course
of the La Sagra survey by S. Sanchez, J. Nomen, M. Hurtado, J. A. Jaume, W. K.
Y. Yeung, P. Rios, F. Serra, and V. Rios with a 0.45-m f/2.8 reflector
(discovery observations tabulated below) has been reported by Gerhard J. Hahn
(Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center, Berlin) as showing
a 35" tail in p.a. 235 deg on stacked and single images taken by Stefano
Mottola using the 1.23-m telescope on Calar Alto on July 16, 17, and 18 UT.

     2012 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     July 13.03197   23 48 07.21   +10 10 11.4   14.6   Sanchez
          13.03844   23 48 05.10   +10 10 48.8   14.6     "
          13.04500   23 48 02.95   +10 11 26.3   14.5     "

The available astrometry, the following preliminary elliptical orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2012-O08.

                    Epoch = 2012 June  2.0 TT
     T = 2012 June 12.7334 TT         Peri. = 338.1128
     e = 0.837229                     Node  = 315.6955  2000.0
     q = 1.289656 AU                  Incl. =  84.2283
       a =  7.923154 AU    n = 0.0441933    P =  22.30 years


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 July 18                     (CBET 3178)              Daniel W. E. Green