Electronic Telegram No. 5096
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 P/2022 C1 (PANSTARRS)
R. Weryk, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western
Ontario, reports the discovery of another comet (first noticed by Mark
Huber) in four 45-s w-band survey images obtained on Feb. 3 UT with the
Pan-STARRS2 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien reflector at Haleakala, Hawaii. Weryk
notes that the discovery images show a condensed coma of size 1".6 (full-
width-at-half-maximum) in 1".5 seeing, with an obvious straight tail 5" long
towards p.a. 270 deg. The discovery observations are tabulated below.
2022 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag.
Feb. 3.33133 9 18 46.37 +18 13 55.5 20.8
3.34399 9 18 45.97 +18 13 58.0 20.6
3.35663 9 18 45.55 +18 14 00.7 20.7
3.36937 9 18 45.14 +18 14 03.3 20.7
3.55683 9 18 39.03 +18 14 40.9 20.7
3.55746 9 18 38.99 +18 14 40.9 20.4
Weryk then was able to find pre-discovery Pan-STARRS2 images of the comet that
were taken on 2021 Nov. 6.6 UT (at mag 21.2-23.4) and on 2022 Jan. 8.44-8.46
(at mag 20.9-21.2), along with images taken with the Pan-STARRS1 1.8-m
Ritchey-Chretien reflector at Haleakala on 2021 Nov. 7.6 (mag 21.7-22.2),
10.6, amd 11.6 (mag 21.7-22.1). Four 45-s w-band survey images taken on Nov.
11.6 show a very condensed coma of size 1".3 in 1".0 seeing, with a tail 3"
long in p.a. 285 degrees. Three 45-s w-band survey images taken on Jan. 8
show a tail 4" long in p.a. 285 degrees.
Mt. Lemmon Survey apparently asteroidal images of the comet made on 2022
Jan. 26.3 and Feb. 1.3 UT (at mag 20.4-21.2 and 20.3-20.6, respectively) that
were reported as two separate objects were identified in the Minor Planet
Center's "isolated tracklet file". The available astrometry appears on MPEC
2022-C74. The following elliptical orbital elements by S. Nakano (CBAT) are
from 28 observations spanning 2021 Nov. 6-2022 Feb. 3 (mean residual 0".2),
indicating that the comet passed 1.36 AU from Saturn in 1990 June and 1.08 AU
from Jupiter on 2002 Jan. 3 UT.
Epoch = 2002 July 25.0 TT
T = 2002 July 26.16178 TT Peri. = 11.07336
e = 0.4573237 Node = 113.53034 2000.0
q = 4.0159282 AU Incl. = 4.74826
a = 7.4002276 AU n = 0.04895944 P = 20.13 years
Epoch = 2021 Nov. 2.0 TT
T = 2021 Nov. 4.77063 TT Peri. = 9.40360
e = 0.4474216 Node = 113.14949 2000.0
q = 3.9857684 AU Incl. = 4.76256
a = 7.2130370 AU n = 0.05087763 P = 19.37 years
Epoch = 2041 May 1.0 TT
T = 2041 Apr. 30.97470 TT Peri. = 9.82304
e = 0.4481261 Node = 113.14562 2000.0
q = 3.9865779 AU Incl. = 4.75994
a = 7.2237114 AU n = 0.05076489 P = 19.42 years
The following ephemeris by the undersigned from the above orbital elements
uses photometric power-law parameters H = 12.0 and 2.5n = 10 for the
magnitudes.
Date TT R. A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. Phase Mag.
2022 01 21 09 25.42 +17 29.1 3.062 4.010 162.3 4.3 20.5
2022 01 31 09 20.51 +18 02.7 3.037 4.017 173.4 1.6 20.5
2022 02 10 09 15.26 +18 35.8 3.042 4.025 174.1 1.4 20.5
2022 02 20 09 10.24 +19 05.5 3.077 4.033 163.1 4.1 20.5
2022 03 02 09 05.94 +19 29.8 3.141 4.042 152.0 6.6 20.6
2022 03 12 09 02.80 +19 47.1 3.230 4.052 141.2 8.8 20.6
2022 03 22 09 01.11 +19 56.7 3.341 4.063 130.9 10.7 20.7
2022 04 01 09 01.00 +19 58.6 3.469 4.074 120.9 12.1 20.8
2022 04 11 09 02.51 +19 52.8 3.612 4.087 111.5 13.2 20.9
2022 04 21 09 05.55 +19 39.9 3.764 4.100 102.5 13.8 21.0
2022 05 01 09 10.01 +19 20.3 3.921 4.113 93.8 14.1 21.1
2022 05 11 09 15.72 +18 54.6 4.081 4.127 85.6 14.1 21.2
2022 05 21 09 22.53 +18 23.2 4.239 4.143 77.6 13.8 21.3
2022 05 31 09 30.25 +17 46.6 4.395 4.158 70.0 13.2 21.4
2022 06 10 09 38.75 +17 05.2 4.544 4.175 62.6 12.5 21.5
2022 06 20 09 47.88 +16 19.5 4.685 4.192 55.3 11.5 21.6
2022 06 30 09 57.51 +15 29.9 4.817 4.209 48.3 10.4 21.7
NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.
(C) Copyright 2022 CBAT
2022 February 5 (CBET 5096) Daniel W. E. Green