Electronic Telegram No. 3801
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/2014 C2 (STEREO)
     K. Battams, Naval Research Laboratory, reports that a comet has been
found by Alan Watson in images obtained with the STEREO-A satellite (visible
in both COR-2 and HI-1 instrumental data), and astrometry and photometry was
submitted to Battams from Man-To Hui (Canton, China), and the computed
geocentric position for the first astrometric observation is tabulated below.
Battams notes a nuclear condensation that is slightly diffuse, and the comet
clearly has a thin, diffuse tail, adding that the peak brightness was
probably around mag 6 (close to when it passed behind the COR-2 occulting
disk) and that the comet may have transited the solar disk as observed from
the spacecraft; by the time that the comet left the HI-1 field-of-view, the
brightness was around mag 12, and it then appeared very diffuse and elongated
with no nuclear condensation apparent.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Feb.  1.46      20 09.77      -19 34.0       7.0

The reduced astrometry, along with the following parabolic orbital elements
G. V. Williams and a search ephemeris for ground-based observers to try
looking for the comet, appear on MPEC 2014-C25.  The object may be near mag
13-14 at elongations 20-30 deg for ground-based observers in the next week
or two, if the comet has survived intact.

     T = 2014 Feb. 18.6577 TT         Peri. =  57.5181
                                      Node  = 283.3470  2000.0
     q = 0.508074 AU                  Incl. = 135.3097


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 February 8                  (CBET 3801)              Daniel W. E. Green