COMET C/2017 M5 (TOTAS)
M. Busch, Heppenheim, Germany, reports the discovery of a comet (discovery astrometry tabulated below) on CCD images taken by P. Ruiz with a 1.0-m f/4.4 reflector of the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station at Tenerife in the course of the "Teide Observatory Tenerife Asteroid Survey"
(TOTAS); T. Thommes confirmed the object to be a real moving object, and Busch noticed that the image was a little "fuzzy". There appears to be a small coma of size 8"-10".

2017 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag. Observer
June 23.06510 18 30 03.94 - 6 46 54.2 18.6 Ruiz
23.07678 18 30 03.68 - 6 46 54.1 18.6 "
23.08847 18 30 03.50 - 6 46 53.3 18.4 "
23.10016 18 30 03.21 - 6 46 52.6 18.7 "

After the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage, other CCD astrometrists also reported on the cometary appearance. K. Sarneczky, Konkoly Observatory, notes that six stacked 120-s unfiltered CCD images taken with the 0.60-m Schmidt telescope at Piszkesteto, Hungary, on June 24.9 UT show the object to be softer than nearby stars, with a coma 6"-8" in diameter but showing no tail; the red magnitude was 18.8 as measured within a circular aperture of radius 5".0. H. Sato, Tokyo, Japan, writes that eight stacked 60-s exposures taken on June 25.4 with an 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph (+ luminance filter) at the Sierra Remote Observatory, Auberry, CA, USA, show a strongly condensed and slightly elongated coma of size 5" x 8" with no obvious tail; the w-band magnitude was 18.8 as measured within a circular aperture of radius 5".0. R. A. Kowalski finds some activity around the core, noting a round coma with diameter < 6" on images taken on June 30.3 in good seeing with the Steward Observatory 1.0-m reflector at Mount Lemmon; the magnitude was measured to be 18.8.
The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements by G. V. Williams (from 64 observations spanning June 23-July 1), and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2017-N25.

T = 2018 Aug. 30.2125 TT Peri. = 97.7840
Node = 218.1282 2000.0
q = 5.998375 AU Incl. = 16.2799