Electronic Telegram No. 4113
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 LC_2 (PANSTARRS)
     R. Wainscoat reports that an object found on i-band images taken with
the 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien Pan-STARRS2 telescope on Haleakala on June 22 UT
show the object to appear slightly soft.  R. Weryk and Wainscoat further note
that six r-band images taken on June 23.3 with the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on
Haleakala show evidence that the object is a comet (full-width-at-half-
maximum 1".5, vs. 1".3 seeing).  M. Micheli and Wainscoat write that three
60-s r-band images taken in excellent seeing using the Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope (queue observer L. Wells) on June 23.3, with the object tracked at
its predicted rate of motion, shows the comet to be extended, being slightly
asymmetric in each image, with a low-surface-brightness extension to the
south in each image.
     The object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP and PCCP
webpages before G. V. Williams linked these observations to an apparently
asteroidal object found on Pan-STARRS1 images taken on June 7 and 8 and then
given the minor-planet designation 2015 LC_2 (MPS 609998); relevant astrometry
from the two Pan-STARRS telescopes is tabulated below.

     2015 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     June  7.33980   13 58 41.12   -30 11 35.2   19.9
           7.36046   13 58 40.46   -30 11 22.2   20.5
           8.31504   13 58 16.46   -30 00 20.5   19.9
           8.32562   13 58 16.19   -30 00 13.1   19.9
           8.33623   13 58 15.91   -30 00 05.8   19.9
           8.34682   13 58 15.65   -29 59 58.5   19.8
          22.29541   13 53 46.74   -27 24 52.9   18.8
          22.31810   13 53 46.41   -27 24 38.4   19.3
          22.32946   13 53 46.23   -27 24 31.0   19.3

     The available astrometry, the followinng preliminary parabolic orbital
elements by Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2015-M54.

     T = 2015 Apr. 10.9972 TT         Peri. = 339.8076
                                      Node  = 223.5444  2000.0
     q = 5.878400 AU                  Incl. =  93.8160


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2015 CBAT
2015 June 24                     (CBET 4113)              Daniel W. E. Green