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C/2012 L3 (LINEAR)

An apparently asteroidal object discovered by the LINEAR survey (discovery observations tabulated below; and posted on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage) has been found to show cometary appearance by other CCD astrometrists.  L. Elenin (Lyubertsy, Russia) writes that three stacked sets of images (each composed of thirty 60-s exposures) obtained remotely with a 0.45-m f/2.8 telescope at the ISON-NM Observatory near Mayhill, NM, USA, on June 11.32 UT shows a round, diffuse coma (FWHM about 11") and a broad, short tail about 25" long in p.a. 180 deg.  E. Bryssinck (Kruibeke,Belgium) reports that nine 120-s co-added images taken on June 11.4 with a 0.43-m f/6.8 astrograph (+ f/4.5 focal reducer) at the RAS Observatory near Mayhill show a diffuse appearance with a clearly circular coma of size 11", along with a suggestion of elongation to the south (p.a. 190 deg), but with no clear tail visible.