Electronic Telegram No. 4257
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)
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Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


COMET P/2016 BA14 (PANSTARRS)
     An apparently asteroidal object discovery with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1
telescope on Haleakala on Jan. 22 (discovery observations tabulated below)
and given the minor-planet designation 2016 BA14 (cf. MPEC 2016-B79) has been
found to show cometary appearance.

     2016 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.
     Jan. 22.33909    6 01 00.27   -34 51 50.9   19.6
          22.35981    6 00 58.73   -34 52 04.9   19.3
          22.37019    6 00 57.95   -34 52 11.7   19.6

     M. M. Knight, M. S. P. Kelley, and S. Protopapa, University of Maryland,
report that 2016 BA14 shows evidence of a faint tail in CCD images acquired
with the 4.3-m Discovery Channel Telescope (Large Monolithic Imager with R
and r' filters) at Happy Jack, AZ, USA, on 2016 Feb. 10.2 and 13.2 UT.
Images obtained by Knight on Feb. 10 showed hints of a faint tail near p.a.
60 degrees.  Longer exposures by Kelley and Protopapa on Feb. 13 more clearly
show the tail at p.a. about 65 degrees with a length of at least 10".  On
both nights, the object's point-spread function was not significantly
different from that of untrailed stars at similar airmasses.  M. Micheli was
involved in measuring the images, measuring red mag 19.1-19.3 on Feb. 10.2
and 18.6-18.7 on Feb. 13.2.
     The available astrometry (including pre-discovery Pan-STARRS1
observations from 2015 Dec. 1.5 UT, when the measured magnitude was
20.6-21.7), the following elliptical orbital elements by G. V. Williams,
and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2016-C192.  M. Knight notes that D.
Denisenko has called attention to the similarity of this orbit to that of
comet 252P/LINEAR.

                    Epoch = 2016 Apr.  2.0 TT
     T = 2016 Mar. 15.51743 TT        Peri. = 351.89507
     e = 0.6663143                    Node  = 180.53540 2000.0
     q = 1.0085751 AU                 Incl. =  18.92005
       a =  3.0225307 AU   n = 0.18756336   P =   5.26 years


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2016 CBAT
2016 February 15                 (CBET 4257)              Daniel W. E. Green