[Iaude] CBET 5364: COMET C/2024 E1

[quai at eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 5364
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/2024 E1 (WIERZCHOS)
     Kacper W. Wierzchos, University of Arizona, reports his discovery of a
comet on four 30-s CCD images obtained on Mar. 3 UT with the Mt. Lemmon Survey
1.5-m reflector (discovery observations tabulated below).  The object showed a
4" coma with a slight elongation in p.a. 320 degrees, indicating the presence
of a possible 6" tail.  Wierzchos also obtained three 60-s follow-up
unfiltered images for confirmation of cometary appearance.

     2024 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     Mar.  3.44584   17 19 12.26   +55 07 02.0   20.4   Wierzchos
           3.45111   17 19 12.41   +55 07 04.6   20.1     "
           3.45637   17 19 12.45   +55 07 05.8   21.0     "
           3.46161   17 19 12.52   +55 07 07.8   20.8     "
           3.46783   17 19 12.59   +55 07 10.7   20.3     "
           3.47182   17 19 12.66   +55 07 12.2   20.9     "
           3.47589   17 19 12.73   +55 07 13.4   20.3     "

After the comet was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, W. Ryan
obtained images in poor seeing on Mar. 4.5 UT with the Magdalena Ridge
Observatory 2.4-m reflector that show a definitive fuzzy appearance (very
condensed coma of size 4".5) with respect to field stars (comet's full-width-
at-half-maximum size was consistently 30 percent greater than nearby stars in
both single and stacked images) with a possible short elongation at p.a.
about 295 degrees.
     The astrometry appears on MPEC 2024-E102 and includes pre-discovery
observations made on Feb. 15.5 (at mag R = 20.4 and g = 21.4) and 29.4-29.5 UT
(mag R = 20.7, g = 20.5) with the 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar that were
reported later to the Minor Planet Center.  The following parabolic orbital
elements by S. Nakano (Central Bureau) are from 27 observations spanning 2024
Feb. 15-Mar. 6 (mean residual 0".2).

     T = 2026 Jan. 21.38303 TT        Peri. = 243.67215
                                      Node  = 108.44951 2000.0
     q = 0.5622944 AU                 Incl. =  75.21409

The following ephemeris by the undersigned from the above orbital elements
uses photometric power-law parameters H = 8.5, and 2.5n = 8 for the
magnitudes.

Date    TT    R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r     Elong.  Phase  Mag.
2024 02 20    17 15.35   +53 51.7    8.105    8.161    89.8     7.0  20.3
2024 03 01    17 18.60   +54 51.7    7.985    8.079    91.9     7.0  20.3
2024 03 11    17 20.58   +55 55.7    7.869    7.996    93.8     7.1  20.2
2024 03 21    17 21.12   +57 01.8    7.757    7.913    95.4     7.2  20.1
2024 03 31    17 20.05   +58 07.7    7.651    7.829    96.6     7.3  20.1
2024 04 10    17 17.24   +59 11.0    7.550    7.745    97.5     7.4  20.0
2024 04 20    17 12.61   +60 08.9    7.456    7.661    98.0     7.5  19.9
2024 04 30    17 06.20   +60 58.6    7.368    7.576    98.1     7.6  19.9
2024 05 10    16 58.16   +61 37.3    7.286    7.491    97.8     7.7  19.8
2024 05 20    16 48.79   +62 02.5    7.211    7.405    97.1     7.8  19.7
2024 05 30    16 38.56   +62 12.3    7.143    7.319    96.0     7.9  19.7
2024 06 09    16 28.04   +62 05.5    7.080    7.232    94.6     8.0  19.6
2024 06 19    16 17.84   +61 41.8    7.022    7.145    92.9     8.2  19.6
2024 06 29    16 08.52   +61 02.1    6.968    7.057    90.9     8.3  19.5
2024 07 09    16 00.54   +60 07.8    6.918    6.969    88.7     8.4  19.4
2024 07 19    15 54.20   +59 00.8    6.871    6.881    86.3     8.5  19.4
2024 07 29    15 49.66   +57 43.8    6.825    6.791    83.8     8.5  19.3
2024 08 08    15 46.94   +56 18.9    6.780    6.702    81.3     8.6  19.3
2024 08 18    15 45.99   +54 48.9    6.734    6.612    78.7     8.6  19.2
2024 08 28    15 46.70   +53 15.8    6.687    6.521    76.2     8.7  19.1
2024 09 07    15 48.93   +51 41.8    6.637    6.429    73.8     8.7  19.1
2024 09 17    15 52.53   +50 08.9    6.584    6.337    71.5     8.7  19.0
2024 09 27    15 57.35   +48 38.6    6.527    6.245    69.4     8.6  18.9
2024 10 07    16 03.23   +47 12.6    6.464    6.152    67.5     8.6  18.9
2024 10 17    16 10.06   +45 52.2    6.395    6.058    66.0     8.6  18.8
2024 10 27    16 17.68   +44 38.8    6.320    5.963    64.7     8.7  18.7
2024 11 06    16 26.00   +43 33.3    6.237    5.868    63.8     8.7  18.6
2024 11 16    16 34.88   +42 37.0    6.147    5.772    63.4     8.8  18.5
2024 11 26    16 44.22   +41 50.7    6.050    5.676    63.3     8.9  18.4


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

                         (C) Copyright 2024 CBAT
2024 March 7                     (CBET 5364)              Daniel W. E. Green