Electronic Telegram No. 3868
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 J1 (CATALINA)
     An apparently asteroidal object discovered on CCD images taken with the
Catalina Sky Survey 0.68-m Schmidt telescope by R. J. Sanders (discovery
observations tabulated below) has been found to show cometary appearance by
observers elsewhere.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     May   9.35934   15 25 25.01   -11 39 30.2   18.2   Sanders
           9.36534   15 25 21.37   -11 39 24.5   18.4     "
           9.37135   15 25 17.74   -11 39 20.1   18.2     "
           9.37736   15 25 14.09   -11 39 14.7   17.8     "
           9.40596   15 24 56.70   -11 38 52.0   18.3     "
           9.40663   15 24 56.30   -11 38 51.5   18.3     "
           9.40730   15 24 55.89   -11 38 51.4   17.8     "
           9.40798   15 24 55.48   -11 38 50.6   18.3     "

After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center' NEOCP and PCCP
webpages, other CCD astrometrists have commented on the object's cometary
appearance.  E. J. Christensen writes that images taken with the Mount Lemmon
1.5-m reflector on May 12.25 UT show the object to be clearly diffuse compared
to field stars, with a circular coma approximately 8" in size (magnitude
18.0-18.4) and no sign of a tail in four 30-s exposures taken in poor seeing.
H. Sato (Tokyo, Japan) writes that thirty-two stacked 10-s exposures taken on
May 15.4 with a 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph (+ luminance filter) reveals a round,
diffuse coma of diameter 8" and no obvious tail; his follow-up stacked images
taken with an iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph at Siding Spring on May 15.6
show a round coma 6" in diameter and a hint of tail southwards.  Fifty stacked
15-s exposures taken remotely by E. Guido, N. Howes, and M. Nicolini with an
iTelescope 0.70-m f/6.6 astrograph on May 16.4 at Siding Spring shows the
object to be slightly diffuse with red mag 17.6-18.0.

The available astrometry, the following parabolic orbital elements by G. V.
Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-K04.

     T = 2014 June 13.4475 TT         Peri. = 191.9800
                                      Node  =  41.6258  2000.0
     q = 1.738203 AU                  Incl. = 160.1850


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 May 16                      (CBET 3868)              Daniel W. E. Green