[Iaude] CBET 4604: 20190123 : COMET C/2019 B1 (AFRICANO)

[quai at eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 4604
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Mailing address:  Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
e-mail:  cbatiau at eps.harvard.edu (alternate cbat at iau.org)
URL http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


COMET C/2019 B1 (AFRICANO)
     B. M. Africano reports the discovery of another comet on CCD images taken
with the Catalina 0.68-m Schmidt telescoe ono Jan. 19.5 UT (discovery
observations tabulated below).  Four co-added 30-s exposures show a diffuse
ball about 10" across with a compact bright core; there was no obvious tail,
but the comet's image may be stretched toward p.a. 290-300 degrees.

     2019 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Jan. 19.47745   13 41 40.77   +55 35 16.9   17.8   Africano
          19.48255   13 41 39.52   +55 35 34.7   17.6     "
          19.48764   13 41 37.94   +55 35 53.4   17.5     "
          19.49273   13 41 36.83   +55 36 12.1   17.7     "
          19.50653   13 41 33.89   +55 37 01.7   18.9     "

CCD observations taken shortly after the discovery observations (on Jan. 19.5
UT) by D. C. Fuls with the Steward Observatory 1.0-m reflector at Mount
Lemmon show a very diffuse coma of size about 10"-12".  After the object was
posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage, P. Birtwhistle (Great
Shefford, Berkshire, England) notes that stacked images totalling 52.8 min
and taken with a 0.41-m f/6.3 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector on Jan. 23.0 shows
the comet to have a diffuse coma of diameter 8", extended to the west to a
distance of 9".
     The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital
elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2019-B65.

     T = 2019 Mar. 19.2366 TT         Peri. = 174.0932
                                      Node  = 290.1842  2000.0
     q = 1.605767 AU                  Incl. = 123.5580


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2019 CBAT
2019 January 23                  (CBET 4604)              Daniel W. E. Green