Electronic Telegram No. 4034
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 P/2014 X1 (ELENIN)
     Leonid Elenin reports his discovery of a diffuse comet with a possible
15" tail in p.a. 230 degrees on three CCD images taken with a 0.4-m f/3
astrograph at the ISON-NM Observatory near Mayhill, NM, USA (discovery
observations tabulated below).

     2014 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Dec. 12.16405    5 11 28.37   +41 44 47.0   18.0   Elenin
          12.17551    5 11 27.59   +41 45 05.4   18.1     "
          12.18633    5 11 26.87   +41 45 23.1   18.1     "
          12.39243    5 11 12.73   +41 50 51.5   17.1     "
          12.39392    5 11 12.62   +41 50 54.3   17.4     "
          12.39541    5 11 12.53   +41 50 56.3   17.2     "
          12.40284    5 11 11.99   +41 51 07.4   17.6     "
          12.40431    5 11 11.95   +41 51 10.4   17.2     "
          12.40579    5 11 11.85   +41 51 12.4   17.1     "
          12.40727    5 11 11.75   +41 51 15.1   17.3     "

After posting on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, other CCD
astrometrists have found this object to show cometary appearance.  H. Sato,
Tokyo, Japan, writes that eight stacked 60-s exposures taken with an
iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph (+ luminance filter) near Mayhill on Dec.
12.5 UT show a moderately condensed coma 15" in diameter with no tail; the
w-band magnitude was 17.0 as measured within a circular aperture of radius
8".2.  K. Sarneczky, Konkoly Observatory, notes that six stacked 90-s
unfiltered images taken with the 0.60-m Schmidt telescope at Piszkesteto,
Hungary, on Dec. 13.05 show a faint, thin, 20"-long tail in p.a. about 210
deg with a nearly stellar coma of total magnitude 17.2 as measured within a
circular aperture of radius 10".
     The available astrometry (including pre-discovery observations found by
G. V. Williams in the MPC archive from September and October), the following
elliptical orbital elements by Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC
2014-X66.  The pre-discovery Pan-STARRS1 observations have measured magnitudes
20.6-20.7 on Sept. 4 and 20.0-20.1 on Sept. 20 and 22; the pre-discovery Mount
Lemmon observations obtained on Oct. 18.5 UT have magnitude 18.6-18.7.

                    Epoch = 2015 Jan. 18.0 TT
     T = 2015 Jan.  7.74261 TT        Peri. =  34.36827
     e = 0.7100107                    Node  =  61.56967 2000.0
     q = 1.8148888 AU                 Incl. =  25.97185
       a =  6.2584683 AU   n = 0.06295091   P =  15.66 years


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

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 December 14                 (CBET 4034)              Daniel W. E. Green