Electronic Telegram No. 5134 Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams Mailing address: 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/2022 L1 (CATALINA) An apparently asteroidal object discovered on June 4 with the 0.68-m Schmidt reflector of the Catalina Sky Survey has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists elsewhere after the Minor Planet Center posted it to the PCCP webpage on the basis of a comet-like orbit. The discovery observations are posted below, along with pre-discovery Catalina images found and reported later from May 31. 2022 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag. May 31.43719 22 14 19.14 -16 42 44.9 19.6 31.44284 22 14 18.47 -16 42 39.5 June 4.42611 22 09 00.75 -15 50 54.9 19.3 4.43115 22 09 00.18 -15 50 51.0 19.5 4.43619 22 08 59.60 -15 50 46.4 20.1 Sixty stacked 60-s exposures taken by A. Aletti, F. Bellini, L. Buzzi, and G. Galli (and measured by Aletti) with a 0.36-m f/8.4 reflector at Hakos, Namibia, in good conditions on June 8.1 UT show a condensed 6" coma elongated in p.a. 235 degrees, with a possible faint outer coma up to 15" wide. E. Bryssinck, Kruibeke, Belgium, writes that twenty-five stacked luminance- filtered 60-s exposures taken remotely by a large group of observers using a "Telecope Live" 0.61-m f/6.5 reflector at Rio Hurtado, Chile, on June 9.3 UT show a condensed coma of size 11", with magnitude 19.5 as measured in a circular aperture of radius 5".5, with no clear tail visible. Twelve stacked 60-s exposures taken remotely by H. Sato (Tokyo, Japan) using a 0.51-m f/6.8 astrograph at Mayhill, NM, USA, on June 11.4 show a strongly condensed coma 12" in diameter with no tail; the magnitude was 18.9 as measured within a circular aperture of radius 6".5. The available astrometry appears on MPEC 2022-L97. The following parabolic orbital elements by S. Nakano (Central Bureau) are from 30 observations spanning May 31-June 11 (mean residual 0".7). T = 2022 Sept.28.10388 TT Peri. = 59.73742 Node = 300.04029 2000.0 q = 1.5934494 AU Incl. = 123.46242 The following ephemeris by the undersigned from the above orbital elements uses photometric power-law parameters H = 15.0 and 2.5n = 8 for the magnitudes. Date TT R. A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. Phase Mag. 2022 05 21 22 23.61 -18 41.9 2.124 2.333 88.8 25.7 19.6 2022 05 26 22 19.89 -17 47.2 1.982 2.289 94.1 26.2 19.4 2022 05 31 22 14.83 -16 48.1 1.840 2.245 99.6 26.4 19.1 2022 06 05 22 08.15 -15 43.0 1.700 2.201 105.5 26.4 18.9 2022 06 10 21 59.48 -14 29.9 1.564 2.159 111.9 25.9 18.6 2022 06 15 21 48.39 -13 06.1 1.432 2.117 118.7 24.9 18.4 2022 06 20 21 34.33 -11 28.3 1.307 2.075 126.2 23.3 18.1 2022 06 25 21 16.70 -09 32.4 1.191 2.035 134.2 21.0 17.8 2022 06 30 20 54.94 -07 14.5 1.090 1.996 142.7 18.0 17.6 2022 07 05 20 28.66 -04 32.5 1.006 1.958 150.9 14.6 17.3 2022 07 10 19 58.00 -01 28.2 0.944 1.921 156.8 12.1 17.1 2022 07 15 19 23.92 +01 49.3 0.910 1.885 156.4 12.5 17.0 2022 07 20 18 48.21 +05 04.2 0.904 1.851 149.3 16.3 16.9 2022 07 25 18 13.22 +07 58.8 0.926 1.819 139.0 21.5 16.9 2022 07 30 17 41.02 +10 21.8 0.973 1.788 128.1 26.6 17.0 2022 08 04 17 12.89 +12 10.5 1.041 1.759 117.7 30.7 17.0 2022 08 09 16 49.21 +13 29.1 1.123 1.732 108.2 33.8 17.2 2022 08 14 16 29.74 +14 24.3 1.215 1.707 99.6 35.8 17.3 2022 08 19 16 13.94 +15 02.5 1.313 1.684 91.9 36.9 17.4 2022 08 24 16 01.23 +15 28.8 1.415 1.663 84.8 37.3 17.5 2022 08 29 15 51.06 +15 47.3 1.516 1.645 78.5 37.0 17.6 2022 09 03 15 42.94 +16 00.7 1.617 1.630 72.6 36.2 17.7 2022 09 08 15 36.47 +16 11.2 1.714 1.617 67.2 35.1 17.8 2022 09 13 15 31.35 +16 20.1 1.808 1.607 62.1 33.6 17.9 2022 09 18 15 27.32 +16 28.4 1.896 1.599 57.5 32.0 18.0 NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars. (C) Copyright 2022 CBAT 2022 June 13 (CBET 5134) Daniel W. E. Green