Electronic Telegram No. 4072
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/2015 D5 (KOWALSKI)
     R. A. Kowalski reports his discovery of a comet on CCD images that he
took with R. G. Matheny at the Mount Lemmon 1.5-m reflector (discovery
observations tabulated below); the initial four images show an apparent
fan-shaped tail 10" long in p.a. 235 deg and a condensed coma of diameter 6".
Four co-added 60-s follow-up images show a strong, straight trail closer to
p.a. 260 deg and 40" in length.

     2015 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Feb. 27.27464   10 45 59.26   +34 36 55.1   18.8   Kowalski
          27.28253   10 45 59.05   +34 36 56.3   19.0     "
          27.29041   10 45 58.76   +34 36 57.2   19.1     "
          27.29832   10 45 58.55   +34 36 58.8   19.1     "
          27.33170   10 45 57.46   +34 37 04.0   19.0     "
          27.33545   10 45 57.29   +34 37 04.4   18.7     "
          27.33920   10 45 57.21   +34 37 05.4   19.0     "
          27.34295   10 45 57.04   +34 37 05.5   18.8     "

After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, other
CCD astrometrists have commented on the object's cometary appearance.  Stacked
images taken in good seeing by G. Galli (Pogliano Milanese, Italy) and S.
Foglia (Novara Veveri, Italy) on Mar. 1.0 UT with a 0.28-m f/6.8 Schmidt-
Cassegrain reflector show the object to be clearly diffuse (total magnitude
18.6-19.3).  H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, reports that sixteen stacked 60-s
exposures taken with an iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph (+ luminance
filter) near Mayhill, NM, USA, on Mar. 1.28 show a moderately condensed coma
10" in diameter with no tail, and magnitude 18.9 as measured within a
circular aperture of radius 6".5.
     The available astrometry, preliminary parabolic orbital elements by G. V.
Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2015-E09.

     T = 2014 Jan. 27.4614 TT         Peri. =   3.0468
                                      Node  =  80.9193  2000.0
     q = 3.355048 AU                  Incl. =  21.0200


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2015 CBAT
2015 March 2                     (CBET 4072)              Daniel W. E. Green