Saturday, February 4, 2012

New Comet: C/2012 B3 (LA SAGRA)

Cbet nr. 3012, issued on 2012, February 04, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 18.3) on CCD images taken with the 0.45-m f/2.8 reflector at La Sagra, Spain on January 29.1, 2012. The apparently asteroidal object was later noted by Jaime Nomen on La Sagra images taken on Jan. 30.2 to be a possible comet with slight diffuseness. The new comet has been designated C/2012 B3 (LA SAGRA).

We performed some follow-up measurements of this object, while it was still on the neocp. Stacking of 10 R-filtered exposures, 20-sec each, obtained remotely, from the Haleakala-Faulkes Telescope North on 2012, Jan.30.6, through a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD, under good seeing conditions, shows that this object appears "soft", compared to the nearby field stars of similar brightness (stellar FWHM of 1.2").

Our confirmation image (click on the image for a bigger version):



M.P.E.C. 2012-C23 assignes the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2012 B3: T 2011 Nov. 29.91; e= 1.00; Peri. = 49.22; q = 3.52 AU; Incl.= 106.85

by G. Sostero, K. Rochowicz, E. Guido, N. Howes & A. Tripp

2 comments:

Erik said...

Great !!! thanks for sharing ! I could ver seen this obect as a comet, but that's the difference between an amateur astronomer and an experienced observer. Great work !

Team said...

Hi Erik

Thanks for your kind words!! Greatly appreciated!!

Ciao,
Ernesto