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New Comet: C/2012 U1 (PANSTARRS)
October 25, 2012
Cbet nr. 3264, issued on 2012, October 22, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 21.0) by Pan-STARRS Survey on images obtained with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope at Haleakala on October 18.3. The new comet has been designated C/2012 U1 (PANSTARRS).
We performed some follow-up measurements of this object, while it was still on the neocp. Stacking of 5 R-filtered exposures, 120-sec each,obtained remotely, from Haleakala-Faulkes Telescope North on 2012, Oct. 22.45, through a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD under good seeing conditions, shows that this object is a comet: diffuse coma nearly 5" in diameter.
M.P.E.C. 2012-U66 (including prediscovery Mount Lemmon Survey observations from Oct. 17.4) assigns the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2012 U1: T 2014 June 30.96; e= 1.0; Peri. = 58.03; q = 6.31 AU; Incl.= 66.73.
by Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes, Alison Tripp & Giovanni Sostero
