Electronic Telegram No. 5662 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/2026 B3 (PANSTARRS) R. Weryk, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, reports the discovery of another comet in images obtained with the Pan-STARRS2 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien reflector at Haleakala on Jan. 29 (discovery observations tabulated below); four 45-s i-band survey images taken in 1".3-1".5 seeing show a condensed, fuzzy head of size 2".1 (full-width-at- half-maximum) with no tail. 2026 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag. Jan. 29.49642 12 14 39.74 +18 11 24.7 20.0 29.50422 12 14 39.45 +18 11 25.2 19.8 29.51205 12 14 39.21 +18 11 25.7 19.7 29.51221 12 14 39.19 +18 11 25.4 19.8 29.51980 12 14 38.92 +18 11 25.7 19.9 29.52077 12 14 38.89 +18 11 25.9 19.7 29.52941 12 14 38.58 +18 11 26.3 20.0 Weryk adds that seven 45-s i-band survey images taken on Jan. 31.5 UT in 0".9-1".1 seeing show a condensed, fuzzy head of size 1".6 (FWHM) with no tail. Four 45-s w-band Pan-STARRS2 survey images (initially submitted as a new object) taken in 1".4-1".8 seeing show a condensed head of size 2".4 (FWHM) with no tail. Three stacked 60-s gri-band follow-up images taken by Weryk and R. Wainscoat (queue observer J. Silva; queue coordinator N. Manset) in 0".7-0".8 seeing on Jan. 17.37 UT with the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea show a condensed head of size 1".6 (FWHM) and a 10" tail in p.a. 20 degrees. After the comet was posted to the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, H. Sato (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan) writes that eleven stacked 60-s CMOS exposures taken remotely on Feb. 3.34-3.35 UT with a 0.51-m f/3.0 astrograph located at the Utah Desert Remote Observatory (near Beryl Junction, UT, USA) show only a stellar appearance; the magnitude was 19.1 as measured within a circular aperture of radius 3".0. The available astrometry appears on MPEC 2026-D28 and includes pre-discovery observations obtained with both the Pan-STARRS1 and Pan-STARRS2 telescopes back to 2025 Jan. 8.6 UT (when the magnitude was given as 22.6-24.0), including observations on 2025 Feb. 27, Mar. 31 (mag 21.3-22.2), Apr. 25, and Dec. 8 (mag 20.3-20.9) and 15 (mag 20.0-20.1) as well as on 2026 Jan. 3 (mag 19.8-20.6); it also includes astrometry from Palomar on 2026 Jan. 28 and 29 that was sent to the MPC after the discovery observations by Weryk. The following orbital elements by S. Nakano (Central Bureau) are from 197 observations spanning 2025 Jan. 8-2026 Feb. 17 (mean residual 0".3), with corresponding "original" and "future" values of 1/a being +0.001205 and +0.001492 (+/- 0.000004) AU**-1. The comet will pass 2.67 AU from Jupiter on 2027 Mar. 6 UT. Epoch = 2027 Apr. 25.0 TT T = 2027 May 5.95113 TT Peri. = 205.29752 e = 0.9946569 Node = 346.26200 2000.0 q = 5.8140294 AU Incl. = 100.86654 The following ephemeris by the undersigned from the above orbital elements uses photometric power-law parameters H = 8.5 and 2.5n = 8 for the magnitudes. Date TT R. A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. Phase Mag. 2026 02 09 12 07.99 +18 21.5 5.817 6.621 141.9 5.3 18.9 2026 02 19 12 00.51 +18 30.8 5.699 6.589 152.0 4.0 18.8 2026 03 01 11 52.15 +18 37.5 5.613 6.556 160.7 2.9 18.8 2026 03 11 11 43.21 +18 39.7 5.562 6.525 164.5 2.3 18.7 2026 03 21 11 34.05 +18 35.6 5.547 6.494 160.3 3.0 18.7 2026 03 31 11 25.06 +18 24.1 5.567 6.463 151.6 4.2 18.7 2026 04 10 11 16.60 +18 04.7 5.620 6.433 141.4 5.6 18.7 2026 04 20 11 08.97 +17 37.5 5.702 6.404 130.8 6.8 18.7 2026 04 30 11 02.39 +17 03.1 5.808 6.375 120.3 7.8 18.8 2026 05 10 10 56.99 +16 22.3 5.932 6.347 109.9 8.6 18.8 2026 05 20 10 52.81 +15 36.2 6.068 6.320 99.8 9.1 18.8 2026 05 30 10 49.85 +14 45.5 6.211 6.293 90.0 9.3 18.9 2026 06 09 10 48.02 +13 51.2 6.356 6.266 80.4 9.2 18.9 2026 06 19 10 47.23 +12 53.8 6.497 6.241 71.0 8.9 18.9 2026 06 29 10 47.37 +11 53.8 6.630 6.215 61.9 8.3 19.0 2026 07 09 10 48.32 +10 51.7 6.750 6.191 52.9 7.5 19.0 2026 07 19 10 49.96 +09 47.6 6.856 6.167 44.2 6.6 19.0 2026 10 27 11 19.22 -01 58.5 6.669 5.970 42.1 6.4 18.8 2026 11 06 11 20.98 -03 12.5 6.524 5.954 51.2 7.5 18.8 2026 11 16 11 22.02 -04 26.2 6.363 5.939 60.5 8.3 18.7 2026 11 26 11 22.20 -05 39.2 6.189 5.925 70.0 9.0 18.6 2026 12 06 11 21.38 -06 50.9 6.006 5.912 79.8 9.4 18.6 2026 12 16 11 19.39 -08 00.7 5.820 5.900 89.8 9.6 18.5 2026 12 26 11 16.12 -09 07.6 5.637 5.888 100.0 9.5 18.4 2027 01 05 11 11.46 -10 10.5 5.461 5.877 110.4 9.0 18.3 2027 01 15 11 05.38 -11 08.1 5.300 5.867 121.0 8.3 18.3 2027 01 25 10 57.92 -11 59.0 5.159 5.858 131.5 7.2 18.2 2027 02 04 10 49.21 -12 41.7 5.045 5.850 141.6 6.0 18.2 2027 02 14 10 39.53 -13 15.1 4.963 5.842 150.5 4.8 18.1 2027 02 24 10 29.24 -13 38.6 4.915 5.836 156.6 3.9 18.1 2027 03 06 10 18.77 -13 52.4 4.903 5.830 157.2 3.8 18.1 2027 03 16 10 08.60 -13 57.5 4.928 5.825 152.1 4.6 18.1 2027 03 26 09 59.15 -13 55.9 4.987 5.821 143.8 5.8 18.1 2027 04 05 09 50.76 -13 49.8 5.076 5.818 134.3 7.1 18.1 2027 04 15 09 43.66 -13 41.6 5.190 5.816 124.4 8.2 18.2 2027 04 25 09 37.96 -13 33.9 5.324 5.815 114.6 9.1 18.2 2027 05 05 09 33.68 -13 28.5 5.472 5.814 105.0 9.6 18.3 2027 05 15 09 30.78 -13 27.2 5.627 5.814 95.6 10.0 18.4 2027 05 25 09 29.14 -13 31.0 5.785 5.816 86.7 10.0 18.4 2027 06 04 09 28.64 -13 40.9 5.941 5.818 78.1 9.8 18.5 2027 06 14 09 29.13 -13 57.4 6.090 5.821 69.9 9.4 18.5 2027 06 24 09 30.46 -14 20.9 6.229 5.824 62.2 8.9 18.6 2027 07 04 09 32.49 -14 51.5 6.354 5.829 54.9 8.2 18.6 2027 07 14 09 35.09 -15 29.3 6.463 5.835 48.2 7.5 18.7 2027 10 02 10 01.32 -24 44.5 6.618 5.909 41.8 6.5 18.8 2027 10 12 10 03.42 -26 23.1 6.550 5.922 47.6 7.1 18.8 2027 10 22 10 04.79 -28 07.1 6.466 5.936 54.0 7.8 18.7 2027 11 01 10 05.26 -29 55.7 6.371 5.951 60.9 8.4 18.7 2027 11 11 10 04.65 -31 47.6 6.266 5.966 68.0 8.9 18.7 2027 11 21 10 02.75 -33 41.5 6.157 5.983 75.3 9.2 18.7 2027 12 01 09 59.38 -35 35.2 6.046 6.000 82.6 9.4 18.6 2027 12 11 09 54.36 -37 26.2 5.939 6.017 89.9 9.4 18.6 2027 12 21 09 47.57 -39 11.3 5.839 6.036 96.9 9.3 18.6 NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars. (C) Copyright 2026 CBAT 2026 February 18 (CBET 5662) Daniel W. E. Green