Comet C/2014 B1 (Schwartz)
Abstract
Michael Schwartz reports his discovery of a comet on images taken with the Tenagra III 0.41-m f/3.75 astrograph at his Tenagra Observatory near Nogales, AZ, U.S.A., by Schwartz and Paulo Holvorcem (discovery observations tabulated below); his co-addition of three 300-s unfiltered exposures taken with the 0.81-m Tenagra II telescope between Jan. 28.23 and 28.27 UT in good seeing conditions (FWHM 3".0) showed a round coma 10" in diameter. Further confirmation of the object's cometary activity was obtained by co-adding twenty-four 300-s unfiltered exposures taken with the Tenagra II telescope between Jan. 29.08 and 29.17 under good seeing conditions (FWHM 2".9), which again showed a central condensation surrounded by a diffuse coma 11" in diameter, slightly elongated toward position angle 350 degrees. 2014 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag. Observer Jan. 28.10488 6 12 49.75 - 4 30 02.2 19.9 Schwartz 28.12282 6 12 49.51 - 4 29 59.2 19.9 " 28.14076 6 12 49.27 - 4 29 57.2 19.8 " 28.22745 6 12 48.49 - 4 29 48.0 19.5 " 28.24632 6 12 48.22 - 4 29 46.1 19.8 " 28.26968 6 12 47.95 - 4 29 44.0 19.2 " 29.08274 6 12 39.84 - 4 28 16.1 19.2 " 29.09396 6 12 39.71 - 4 28 14.6 19.2 " 29.10516 6 12 39.59 - 4 28 13.7 19.3 " 29.11637 6 12 39.47 - 4 28 13.1 19.1 " 29.12758 6 12 39.36 - 4 28 11.7 19.3 " 29.13878 6 12 39.21 - 4 28 10.3 19.0 " 29.14998 6 12 39.13 - 4 28 09.3 19.1 " 29.16118 6 12 39.02 - 4 28 07.7 19.0 " After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP and PCCP webpages, it has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists elsewhere. H. Sato (Tokyo, Japan; using an iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph + broadband luminance filter at Siding Spring) reports that ten stacked 60-s exposures taken on Jan. 29.6 show a strongly condensed coma of diameter 12"-15" with no obvious tail; the magnitude as measured within a circular aperture of radius 8".2 was 18.3. Nine stacked 90-s red-band images obtained on Feb. 1.0 by Pablo Ruiz with the 1.0-m telescope at the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station (Tenerife, Canary Islands) were analyzed by Marco Micheli, Detlef Koschny, and Andre Knoefel, who report a coma of FWHM about 3".5 in 2".5 seeing conditions.
- Publication:
-
Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams
- Pub Date:
- February 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014CBET.3797....1S