Electronic Telegram No. 3854
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 G3 (PANSTARRS)
     Bryce Bolin, Larry Denneau, and Richard Wainscoat report the discovery of
a comet in four 45-s w-band exposures from the Pan-STARRS1 telescope at
Haleakala (discovery observations tabulated below), the object having a
diffuse, non-stellar appearance.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Apr. 10.54243   17 34 02.74   + 1 49 06.2   19.9
          10.55715   17 34 02.02   + 1 49 10.5   19.9
          10.57193   17 34 01.30   + 1 49 14.8   19.9
          10.58669   17 34 00.57   + 1 49 19.2   19.8

After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage, other
CCD astrometrists have commented on the object's cometary appearance.  T.
Linder and R. Holmes (0.41-m f/11 Ritchey-Chretien telescope at Cerro Tololo;
fifty-nine co-added 20-s images) observed a round coma of diameter 3" with no
apparent tail on Apr. 12.4 UT.  H. Sato (Tokyo, Japan; remotely with an
iTelescope 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph at the Sierra Remote Observatory, Auberry,
CA, U.S.A.; ten stacked 60-s exposures) found a strongly condensed coma 6" in
diameter with no tail and magnitude 19.5 with a luminance filter as measured
within a circular aperture of radius 3".8 on Apr. 13.5.
     The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-H04.

     T = 2015 Jan. 29.8766 TT         Peri. = 147.4224
                                      Node  =   3.9956  2000.0
     q = 4.698225 AU                  Incl. = 155.8986


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 April 17                    (CBET 3854)              Daniel W. E. Green