Electronic Telegram No. 3914
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 L5 (LEMMON)
     An apparently asteroidal object found by R. A. Kowalski on CCD images
taken with the Mt. Lemmon 1.5-m reflector on June 9 (discovery observations
tabulated below) has subsequently been found by E. J. Christensen to appear
cometary; Christensen's Mt. Lemmon images from June 23 and 24 are suggestive
of cometary activity, and he then looked at earlier images from Mt. Lemmon
(others were also taken on June 10 and 18) and noticed that the object looks
slightly diffuse but is otherwise featureless.  The object had been posted
on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage and was moved to its PCCP webpage
based on Christensen's report.  H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, writes that six stacked
120-s exposures taken on June 26.4 with an 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph (+
luminance filter) near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A., shows a faint coma 8" in diameter
with a starlike nucleus and no tail, with a w-band magnitude of 19.8 as
measured within a circular aperture of radius 4".9.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     June  9.44429    0 58 13.44   +31 28 24.1   20.1   Kowalski
           9.44820    0 58 13.39   +31 28 25.7   20.9     "
           9.45209    0 58 13.34   +31 28 27.3   20.1     "

The available astrometry, the following very preliminary parabolic orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-M57.

     T = 2014 Dec. 16.0259 TT         Peri. =  47.6002
                                      Node  =  35.8431  2000.0
     q = 6.155856 AU                  Incl. = 123.0621


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 June 28                     (CBET 3914)              Daniel W. E. Green