Electronic Telegram No. 4066 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/2015 C1 (TOTAS-GIBBS) An apparently asteroidal object that was identified via automatic TOTAS evaluation software created by Matthias Busch (Heppenheim, Germany) on images taken by P. Ruiz with the 1.0-m f/4.4 reflector at the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station, Tenerife, on Jan. 12.0 UT in the course of the Teide Observatory Tenerife Asteroid Survey (TOTAS) was confirmed as a real object by Jens Rothermel and then noticed by Busch to be slightly diffuse with a possible faint tail around 10" long toward p.a. 280 deg; the report was sent by Busch to the Minor Planet Center for posting on its NEOCP webpage. The object was not posted on the NEOCP, and was then reported as an independent discovery by A. R. Gibbs with the Mount Lemmon 1.5-m reflector, from which four co-added 30-s unfiltered CCD images taken in mediocre seeing showed a 6" circular coma and a 7" tapered tail in p.a. 310 deg; five co-added 60-s follow-up images taken in fair seeing by Gibbs on Feb. 14.47 show a round-but-somewhat-fuzzy coma 6" in size, with a tapered tail 8" long in p.a. 310 deg. 2015 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag. Observer Feb. 11.98037 10 24 38.96 +17 49 44.1 18.9 TOTAS 11.99206 10 24 38.50 +17 49 43.6 19.5 " 12.00375 10 24 37.96 +17 49 43.1 19.1 " 12.01544 10 24 37.47 +17 49 42.4 19.1 " 13.42607 10 23 38.76 +17 48 40.3 18.7 Gibbs 13.42915 10 23 38.66 +17 48 40.2 18.7 " 13.43223 10 23 38.52 +17 48 39.9 18.7 " 13.43531 10 23 38.38 +17 48 39.8 18.4 " 13.44116 10 23 38.16 +17 48 39.4 18.8 " 13.44200 10 23 38.11 +17 48 39.4 18.7 " 13.44284 10 23 38.08 +17 48 39.3 18.7 " 13.44369 10 23 38.04 +17 48 39.2 18.8 " 13.44776 10 23 37.87 +17 48 39.2 18.7 " 13.44895 10 23 37.79 +17 48 39.2 18.7 " 13.45014 10 23 37.76 +17 48 39.0 18.9 " 13.45133 10 23 37.69 +17 48 39.0 18.7 " After the object was posted on the MPC's PCCP webpage, other CCD astrometrists have also commented on the object's cometary appearance. H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, writes that twelve stacked 60-s exposures taken on Feb. 14.2 UT with an iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph (+ luminance filter) near Mayhill, NM, USA, show it to be strongly condensed with an asymmetrical coma 12" in diameter of w-band magnitude 18.1 as measured within a circular aperture of radius 8".2. W. H. Ryan (Magdalena Ridge Observatory 2.4-m f/8.9 reflector + R-band filter; Feb. 14.3) reports a coma of red mag 18.2-18.4 and a tail toward p.a. about 300 deg. Images taken by J. Ticha, M. Tichy, and M. Kocer with the 1.06-m KLENOT Telescope at Klet Observatory on Feb. 15.9 show a faint and diffuse 7" coma. K. Sarneczky, Konkoly Observatory, writes that five stacked 150-s unfiltered images taken with the 0.60-m Schmidt telescope at Piszkesteto, Hungary, on Feb. 16.90 show a strongly condensed coma and a tail 10" long in p.a. about 285 deg. The available astrometry, the following preliminary elliptical orbital elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2015-D07. Epoch = 2015 May 18.0 TT T = 2015 May 1.1867 TT Peri. = 178.3823 e = 0.562132 Node = 348.8517 2000.0 q = 2.894538 AU Incl. = 13.8899 a = 6.610522 AU n = 0.0579896 P = 17.0 years NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars. (C) Copyright 2015 CBAT 2015 February 17 (CBET 4066) Daniel W. E. Green