Electronic Telegram No. 3639
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/2013 P5 (PANSTARRS)
     Bryce Bolin, Larry Denneau, Marco Micheli, and Richard Wainscoat report
the discovery of a comet in CCD exposures from the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on
Haleakala (discovery observations tabulated below); the object has a nuclear
condensation with a stellar appearance and a thin tail that extends for
approximately 30" towards position angle approximately 255 degrees.  Follow-up
exposures by Micheli (measured with D. J. Tholen) using the 2.24-m University
of Hawaii reflector at Mauna Kea on Aug. 16.5 UT show that the head of the
comet is fairly stellar in appearance, but there is a tail at least 90" long
in position angle 238 deg.  After the object was posted on the Minor Planet
Center's NEOCP webpage, T. Lister wrote that tweleve stacked 200-s images
taken on Aug. 27.0 with a 1.0-m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien telescope at Sutherland,
South Africa, show a coma about 4" across with a tail about 17" long in p.a.
about 238 deg.

     2013 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Aug. 15.49733   23 03 42.10   + 2 08 21.3   20.9
          15.51287   23 03 41.36   + 2 08 20.6   21.0
          15.52844   23 03 40.63   + 2 08 19.8   20.9
          15.54396   23 03 39.89   + 2 08 19.0   21.1

The available astrometry, the following elliptical orbital elements by
G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2013-Q37.

     T = 2014 Apr. 17.8852 TT         Peri. = 144.9328
     e = 0.117373                     Node  = 279.3831  2000.0
     q = 1.933810 AU                  Incl. =   4.9810
       a =  2.190971 AU    n = 0.3039129    P =   3.24 years


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2013 CBAT
2013 August 27                   (CBET 3639)              Daniel W. E. Green