Electronic Telegram No. 3933
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 Q1 (PANSTARRS)
     Bryce Bolin and Marco Micheli write that an object discovered on images
taken on Aug. 16 with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS reflector at Haleakala (discovery
observations tabulated below) has been found to be clearly extended with a
roughly circular diffuse coma in a series of unfiltered images taken with the
University of Hawaii 2.2-m telescope on Aug. 19.5 UT; the red magnitude was
measured as 17.4-18.4, and there may be a hint of a tail at p.a. 320 degrees.

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Aug. 16.54746    0 10 46.41   -26 08 10.8   18.4
          16.55800    0 10 46.01   -26 08 14.8   18.3
          16.56853    0 10 45.61   -26 08 18.7   18.3
          16.57903    0 10 45.21   -26 08 22.6   18.4

After posting on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP and PCCP webpages, other CCD
astrometrists have commented on the object's cometary appearance.  H. Sato,
Tokyo, Japan, reports that ten stacked 60-s exposures taken with an iTelescope
0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph (+ luminance filter) near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A., on Aug.
18.4 show a strongly condensed coma 10" in diameter with no tail; the w-band
magnitude was 17.3 as measured within a circular aperture of radius 6".5.  L.
Buzzi reports that seventy-five 20-s exposures taken by R. Holmes (Ashmore,
IL, USA) with a 0.61-m f/4 astrograph on Aug. 19.3 shows a round coma at least
17" wide that is slightly extended toward the northwest.
     The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2014-Q09.

     T = 2015 July  2.3553 TT         Peri. = 117.3089
                                      Node  =   9.9740  2000.0
     q = 0.348075 AU                  Incl. =  41.5510


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 August 19                   (CBET 3933)              Daniel W. E. Green