Electronic Telegram No. 3812
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 AA_52 (CATALINA)
     An apparently asteroidal object discovered on Catalina Sky Survey images
obtained on Jan. 11 by R. A. Kowalski with the 0.68-m Schmidt telescope
(discovery observations tabulated below, with the designation 2014 AA_52
given on MPEC 2014-A87 and MPS 497323) has been found to show cometary
appearance by CCD astrometrists elsewhere.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Jan. 11.39320   10 09 49.12   - 3 15 58.8   19.8   Kowalski
          11.40198   10 09 48.71   - 3 16 02.0   19.2     "
          11.41073   10 09 48.10   - 3 16 04.4   19.7     "
          11.41951   10 09 47.70   - 3 16 06.6   19.7     "
          11.42982   10 09 47.07   - 3 16 07.6   18.5     "
          11.43856   10 09 46.70   - 3 16 08.3   19.1     "
          11.44733   10 09 46.27   - 3 16 12.6   19.4     "
          11.45608   10 09 45.79   - 3 16 13.9   19.8     "

Bryce Bolin, Larry Denneau, Richard Wainscoat, Peter Veres, and Marco Micheli
report that 2014 AA_52 appeared diffuse with a slightly asymmetric appearance,
extended towards position angle 30 degrees, in four 45-s w-band exposures
taken with the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on Haleakala on Feb. 24 UT.  Wainscoat
and Micheli obtained three follow-up r-band images with the Canada-France-
Hawaii Telescope on Feb. 25 UT in excellent seeing (queue observer Peter
Forshay), showing the object to be clearly extended with strongly asymmetric
appearance, having a bright core to the south and extending to position angle
approximately 30 degrees, adding that a very-low-surface-brightness tail may
be present, extending about 4" from the core at position angle 30 degrees.
H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, writes that eight 60-s images obtained with an
iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph (+ luminance filter) at Siding Spring on
Feb. 24.5 show an asymmetrical coma 6"-8" in size, strongly condensed and
elongated northwards with magnitude 18.1 as measured within a circular
aperture of radius 6".6.
     The available astrometry (including pre-discovery Pan-STARRS1
observations from Jan. 4), the following preliminary hyperbolic orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-D45.

                    Epoch = 2015 Feb. 27.0 TT
     T = 2015 Feb. 27.62644 TT        Peri. = 292.25661
     e = 1.0005856                    Node  = 330.49420 2000.0
     q = 2.0027309 AU                 Incl. = 105.21534


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

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 February 26                 (CBET 3812)              Daniel W. E. Green