Comet P/2014 U2 (Kowalski)
Abstract
R. A. Kowalski reports his discovery of a comet with a tight, condensed core and a sharp, straight, faint tail approximately 20" long in p.a. 270 deg on CCD images taken with the Catalina Sky Survey's 0.68-m Schmidt telescope on Oct. 25.4 UT (discovery observations tabulated below, along with his pre-discovery observations from Oct. 18, when the tail was barely visible). 2014 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag. Observer Oct. 18.35431 6 32 05.52 +39 51 17.4 18.1 Kowalski 18.36960 6 32 08.97 +39 51 31.1 18.1 " 25.38475 6 57 18.99 +41 05 09.0 18.1 " 25.39250 6 57 20.63 +41 05 12.9 " 25.40024 6 57 21.93 +41 05 17.6 18.4 " 25.40802 6 57 23.39 +41 05 22.9 18.0 " 25.44944 6 57 31.07 +41 05 45.8 18.3 " 25.45817 6 57 32.80 +41 05 50.4 18.5 " After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, other CCD astrometrists have commented on the object's cometary appearance. R. Haver writes that exposures taken on Oct. 26.2 UT with a 37-cm Cassegrain telescope at Frasso Sabino (near Rieti, Italy) show a faint coma about 5" in diameter and a tail 1'.2 long in p.a. 272 deg (the tail's image ending at a bright star). H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, stacked sixteen 30-s exposures taken on Oct. 26.2 with an iTelescope 0.32-m f/8 astrograph at Nerpio, Spain, to find the object to have a strongly condensed coma 6" in diameter with a 15" tail toward p.a. 250 degrees; his additional stacked ten 60-s exposures taken on Oct. 26.31 with an iTelescope 0.43-m f/6.8 astrograph near Mayhill, NM, USA, show a strongly condensed coma 10" in diameter with a fan-like tail 20" long toward p.a. 250 degrees. R-band images taken by W. H. Ryan and E. V. Ryan with the Magdalena Ridge Observatory 2.4-m f/8.9 reflector on Oct. 26.35-26.37 show a very prominent tail at p.a. about 270 deg. Seven stacked 120-s exposures taken by R. Ligustri with an iTelescope 0.50-m f/4.5 reflector near Mayhill on Oct. 26.5 show a tail about 35" long toward p.a. 270 deg. T. Vorobjov reports that six stacked 60-s exposures taken on Oct. 26.5 with the Kitt Peak 1.3-m f/13 Cassegrain reflector show a tail at least 45" long in p.a. 271 degrees. G. Baj, Saltrio, Italy notes that stacked images taken in good seeing with a 0.25-m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien reflector on Oct. 27.04-27.08 show a clear, compact coma. S. Foglia writes that forty-five stacked 60-s exposures taken by R. Holmes (Ashmore, IL, USA) with a 0.81-m f/4 astrograph on Oct. 27.4 reveal a tail at least 45" long in p.a. 270 degrees and a coma of size 12" x 6" elongated toward p.a. 250 deg; he has posted an image of the comet at website URL http://asteroidi.uai.it/neocp/VU07B9E.gif.
- Publication:
-
Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams
- Pub Date:
- October 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014CBET.4006....1K