[Iaude] CBET 5315: COMET C/2023 V4

[quai at eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 5315
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/2023 V4 (CAMARASA-DUSZANOWICZ)
     Jordi Camarasa (Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain) reports the discovery of a
somewhat-diffuse comet by Grzegorz Duszanowicz (Akersberga, Sweden) and
himself on CMOS-camera images taken on Nov. 5.1 UT using two 0.28-m f/1.9
Schmidt-Cassegrain (Celestron C11) telescopes located at Duszanowicz's
"Moonbase South Observatory" at the Hakos "Astro Farm" in Namibia (discovery
observations tabulated below).  Follow-up observations by Camarasa and
Duszanowicz with a Celestron 14 f/7 telescope on Nov. 5.81-5.86 revealed a
clear tail, and the cometary nature of the object was obvious.

     2023 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Nov.  5.05544    3 54 14.20   -48 50 30.8   18.7   Camarasa
           5.06154    3 54 13.59   -48 50 30.9   18.5     "
           5.06612    3 54 13.04   -48 50 31.1   18.6     "
           5.06765    3 54 12.88   -48 50 31.4   18.6     "

After the comet was posted to the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, CCD
astrometrists elsewhere confirmed the cometary appearance.  Eight stacked 60-s
exposures taken remotely on Nov. 6.2 UT by H. Sato (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan)
using a "Deep Sky Chile" 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph located at Rio Hurtado,
Childe, show a strongly condensed coma 8" in diameter with a 10" tail toward
p.a. 340 degrees; the magnitude was 18.8 as measured within a circular
aperture of radius 4".3.  T. Prystavski (Lviv, Ukraine) writes that images
taken remotely also with a "Deep Sky Chile" 0.51-m f/6.8 reflector at Rio
Hurtado on Nov. 7.1 show this to be definitely a comet; the condensed coma
has a dize of 7".1 and total magnitude 19.3, with a slightly curved tail 0'.3
long.
     The available astrometry appears on MPEC 2023-V192.  The following
preliminary parabolic orbital elements by S. Nakano (Central Bureau) are from
67 observations spanning Nov. 5-9 (mean residual 0".5).

     T = 2024 May  29.7019 TT         Peri. =  50.7348
                                      Node  =  66.5886  2000.0
     q = 1.121179 AU                  Incl. =  66.9310

The following ephemeris by the undersigned from the above orbital elements
uses photometric power-law parameters H = 12.5 and 2.5n = 8 for the
magnitudes.  The comet will be on the far side of the sun at perihelion
next year.

Date    TT    R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r     Elong.  Phase  Mag.
2023 10 23    04 15.05   -47 55.3    2.737    3.251   112.5    16.4  18.8
2023 11 02    03 59.66   -48 43.0    2.611    3.142   113.5    16.8  18.6
2023 11 12    03 40.93   -48 52.2    2.501    3.031   113.2    17.5  18.3
2023 11 22    03 20.23   -48 11.2    2.408    2.920   111.6    18.3  18.1
2023 12 02    02 59.48   -46 33.1    2.333    2.808   108.6    19.4  17.9
2023 12 12    02 40.59   -43 57.5    2.275    2.695   104.4    20.7  17.7
2023 12 22    02 24.99   -40 30.0    2.235    2.581    99.2    22.1  17.5
2024 01 01    02 13.37   -36 20.7    2.210    2.467    93.1    23.5  17.4
2024 01 11    02 05.78   -31 40.5    2.197    2.352    86.5    24.7  17.2
2024 01 21    02 01.92   -26 39.5    2.195    2.238    79.6    25.6  17.0
2024 01 31    02 01.32   -21 25.9    2.200    2.123    72.5    26.3  16.8
2024 02 10    02 03.51   -16 05.2    2.209    2.008    65.3    26.5  16.6
2024 02 20    02 08.09   -10 41.0    2.218    1.895    58.3    26.3  16.5
2024 03 01    02 14.74   -05 14.8    2.225    1.783    51.3    25.7  16.2
2024 03 11    02 23.23   +00 13.2    2.228    1.673    44.6    24.6  16.0


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

                         (C) Copyright 2023 CBAT
2023 November 11                 (CBET 5315)              Daniel W. E. Green