La Cañada 16-May-2015 NEOCP Observations P10l0Zk -> COMET C/2015 J2 (PANSTARRS)

The image below is a stack of short images of NEOCP P10l0Zk taken at La Cañada on the night of 16-May-2015, at that moment only three observations were available at the NEOCP, those by the observatory F51 Pan-STARRS  Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System.

Once the object was confirmed by J87 at the predicted position and movement, the astrometry and photometry report was sent to the Minor Planet Center MPC together with remarks on the diffuse aspect of the object. A coma about 8 arc seconds elongated in PA 320 degrees was measured.

Soon after that, the MPC moved the body from the NEOCP to the Possible Comet Confirmation Page PCCP,  the only observations available from the PCCP then were the discovery observations and those of the confirmation by J87.

The calculations updated May 18.63 UT based on 35 observations spanning 2.89 days showed a nearly parabolic orbit with a semi axis about 100 AU passing the perihelion around 2015 Oct. 17.8

Picture obtained from observatory J87 La Cañada, this is a stack of 50 images with 1 minute of exposure time each following on the movement predicted by the Minor Planet Center ephemeris Service MPES based on just three observations by F51 Pan-STARRS the night before.

Electronic Telegram No. 4100
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION CBAT
Director: Daniel W. E. Green; 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 C/2015 J2 (PANSTARRS) E. Lilly and R. Weryk, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, report the discovery of another apparent comet in three w-band exposures taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope at Haleakala on May 15.5 UT (discovery observations tabulated below); the object shows a prominent tail with approximately 8" long extending towards p.a. approximately 300 degrees.

 2015 May UT R.A. (2000) Decl.          Mag.

 15.48694        16 10 05.44 -23 22 05.6 19.6
 15.49789        16 10 05.12 -23 22 07.0 19.7
 15.50882        16 10 04.80 -23 22 08.7 19.6 

Wainscoat and M. Micheli add that three 60-s r-band follow-up exposures were taken of the object with the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on May 16.5 UT (queue observer D. Woodworth), which show the object clearly cometary in appearance, with a broad, low-surface-brightness tail that extends from the nuclear condensation for at least 10" toward p.a. approximately 300 degrees.

After the comet was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, other CCD astrometrists have also noted the object's cometary appearance. J. Lacruz, Madrid, Spain, reports that sixty stacked 60-s exposures taken with a 0.40-m Ritchey-Chretien reflector on May 17.0 UT show the comet to be diffuse with a fan-shaped coma 9" across with an apparent tail in p.a. 320 deg. A. Maury and J.-F. Soulier finds that images taken on May 17.1 with a 0.4-m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien reflector at San Pedro de Atacama show a 11" x 13" coma and a tail 15" long in p.a. 310 deg; they measured the comet's brightness in a 6".2 radius to be 18.8. W. H. Ryan communicates that his R-band images taken on May 18.33-18.36 with the Magdalena Ridge Observatory 2.4-m f/8.9 reflector show a distinct tail at p.a. about 300 deg, and he finds the comet's magnitude to be 18.6-18.9. H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, writes that four stacked 60-s exposures taken with an iTelescope 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph (+ luminance filter) at Siding Spring on May 18.6 UT show the comet to be strongly condensed with a coma 10" in diameter and no tail; the w-band magnitude was 20.2 as measured within a circular aperture of radius 6".6. The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements by G. V. Williams, and an ephemeris appear on

MPEC 2015-K18. T = 2015 Oct. 17.8168 TT Peri. = 208.0670 Node = 57.2873 2000.0 q = 4.448423 AU Incl. = 18.7941

NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars. (C) Copyright 2015 CBAT 2015 May 19 (CBET 4100) Daniel W. E. Green

My personal NOTE, shame on the central bureau for astronomical telegrams:

Hello Daniel,

It's not correct the observations by J. Lacruz were done after the object was posted on the PCCP as CBET 4100 states.

To be fair, the remarks on the cometary nature of this object by J. Lacruz should appear rigth after the discovery observations, and before those by Wainscoat and Micheli because the cometary appearance of this body by J. Lacruz was noted and communicated to cbat before others did..

The observations from La Cañada and remarks noting the cometary appereance  were done before the object was posted on the PCCP. At that time the object was posted on the NEOCP and only three observations by the discovery site were available. In summary it was moved to the PCCP because of the remarks sent by J87 when it was in the NEOCP.

The object was moved to the PCCP right after I sent the remarks on its cometary nature and it appeared there with just the discovery observations together with mine. After that observations by others were added including those taken by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.  

It is not the same to note the cometary nature of such a faint object when it mey just be a NEO that once you know it may most likely be a comet

Please correct

Best regards

Amor NEO 2012 BB2

This NEO discovered by the LINEAR Survey has been confirmed from La Cañada, Ávila (among other obervatories) on observations conducted remotely from Madrid the night of 2012-January-19.

References : MPEC 2012-B20

NEO Confirmation 2010 NG

An object posted on MPCs NEOCP was confirmed on a stack of images taken remotely from Madrid on 2010 July 04. Moving at 6 arc seconds per minute at magnitud 19V didn't seem an easy object however the night was clear enough to allow an early detection with small residuals. Because the resulting plate scale of the telescope + CCD system is about 1.2 arc seconds per pixel, the exposure used was 10 seconds per frame, short enough to prevent the asteroid drift.

This case highlights the different classification scheme used by different organitazions. Having a semimajor axis a = 1.533 and perihelion distance q = 1.005, 2010 NG is Amor for the MPC and Apollo for the JPL.

The MPC NEO classes :

Atens have semimajor axes, a, less than 1 AU;

Apollos have semimajor axes, a, greater than 1 AU, and perihelion distances, q, less than 1 AU;

Amors have perihelion distances between 1 and 1.3 AU.

The JPL Orbits classes :

Aten Near-Earth asteroid orbits similar to that of 2062 Aten (a < 1.0 AU; Q > 0.983 AU).

Apollo Near-Earth asteroid orbits which cross the Earth's orbit similar to that of 1862 Apollo (a > 1.0 AU; q < 1.017 AU).

Amor Near-Earth asteroid orbits similar to that of 1221 Amor (a > 1.0 AU; 1.017 < q < 1.3 AU).

Reference : MPEC 2010-N15

Observations 2009 Feb 14

The telescope is back to work after a repair, both AR and Dec reduction trains failed at the same time and they were changed.
Followup of bodies discovered from La Cañada on 2007, 2007 WR, 2007 WT2 and 2007 VP2.
Confirmation of a NEOCP Amor object 2009 CO5 with excellent residuals, read the MPC 2009-C86 .
Observations of comet centaur 29P in a post-outburst state.
Multicolor photometry of M67 cluster, results pending.