Electronic Telegram No. 4232
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Mailing address:  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/2016 A1 (PANSTARRS)
     R. J. Wainscoat reports that an object found on four r-band exposures
obtained on Jan. 1.54-1.57 UT with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope on
Haleakala (discovery observations tabulated below) shows a clearly extended
appearance (FWHM 2".5 in 1".25 seeing) but with no obvious tail.  Confirming
CCD observations obtained by Wainscoat and P. Forshay with the 3.6-m Canada-
France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea on Jan. 2.5 (measured by M. Micheli and
J. Wainscoat) show a faint tail to the east-southeast; the red magnitude was
measured as 18.5-18.6.

     2016 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Jan.  1.53992   10 08 55.22   -37 25 45.8   19.3
           1.54921   10 08 54.90   -37 25 46.4   19.3
           1.55852   10 08 54.64   -37 25 46.5   19.3
           1.56756   10 08 54.30   -37 25 46.7   19.3

After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage, A.
Maury and J.-F. Soulier write that their stacked unfiltered CCD images taken
on Jan. 3.2 UT with a 0.4-m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien reflector at San Pedro de
Atacama, Chile, show a 9" coma and a possible tail 8" long in p.a. 150 deg;
the red magnitude was measured to be 18.4-18.8.
     The available astrometry (spanning Jan. 1-5), the following preliminary
parabolic orbital elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC
2016-A62.

     T = 2017 Nov. 23.0754 TT         Peri. =  10.4537
                                      Node  = 128.2487  2000.0
     q = 5.317378 AU                  Incl. = 121.1302


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2016 CBAT
2016 January 7                   (CBET 4232)              Daniel W. E. Green