Comet P/2013 P5 (Panstarrs)
Abstract
Bryce Bolin, Larry Denneau, Marco Micheli, and Richard Wainscoat report the discovery of a comet in CCD exposures from the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on Haleakala (discovery observations tabulated below); the object has a nuclear condensation with a stellar appearance and a thin tail that extends for approximately 30" towards position angle approximately 255 degrees. Follow-up exposures by Micheli (measured with D. J. Tholen) using the 2.24-m University of Hawaii reflector at Mauna Kea on Aug. 16.5 UT show that the head of the comet is fairly stellar in appearance, but there is a tail at least 90" long in position angle 238 deg. After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage, T. Lister wrote that tweleve stacked 200-s images taken on Aug. 27.0 with a 1.0-m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien telescope at Sutherland, South Africa, show a coma about 4" across with a tail about 17" long in p.a. about 238 deg. 2013 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag. Aug. 15.49733 23 03 42.10 + 2 08 21.3 20.9 15.51287 23 03 41.36 + 2 08 20.6 21.0 15.52844 23 03 40.63 + 2 08 19.8 20.9 15.54396 23 03 39.89 + 2 08 19.0 21.1 The available astrometry, the following elliptical orbital elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2013-Q37. T = 2014 Apr. 17.8852 TT Peri. = 144.9328 e = 0.117373 Node = 279.3831 2000.0 q = 1.933810 AU Incl. = 4.9810 a = 2.190971 AU n = 0.3039129 P = 3.24 years
- Publication:
-
Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams
- Pub Date:
- August 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013CBET.3639....1B