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2012 QG42 close approach..maps please..


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So I want to try to spot this as it comes past us shortly..7 times as far away as the moon..250m accross a potentially hazardous asteroid..

I have some RA dec figures for Dorset and I am in Bristol so I presume that would get me close..

I see it should be possible to get the data in to Carte Du Ciel but this seems to be on a batch basis..Can I put in the data for one object??

Or better still anyone print me out a map for the 9-12the September??

Mark

P.S might make a change from galaxy hunting!

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Here you go.

This is a printout from Carte du Ciel for the nights of 12th & 13th Sept, with hourly positions shown. The left-hand position is 22:00 BST on the 12th, ending with 21:00 BST on the 13th. It'll be passing through the Milky Way at its brightest, so will be a tricky one visually. I think I'll definitely have a go at capturing it though. Thanks for the heads up.

post-3895-0-16288400-1346505869_thumb.jp

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......By the way how did you get it in to CDC..What URL did you put in the orbits section etc...

CdC does it automatically, by downloading the latest data from http://www.minorplan...B/MPCORB.DAT.gz

I just go to Setup > Solar System > Asteroid > Load MPC file > Download the latest orbital elements. It can take a few minutes to download and process the data, and you end up with a heck of a lot of asteroids which can clog the PC quite a bit!

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I put together a video of this Potentially Hazardous Asteroid: http://youtu.be/MXdBy5b8Mrw

If anyone is clouded out on the night, I'll be imaging the asteroid live from dusk on the night of 13th/14th Sept - I'll be piping the live images into a live free show on the homepage of Slooh Space Camera (slooh.com). I'll be using their Half Metre telescope and other telescopes to track the asteroid from their Canary Islands Observatory.

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Hi all,

Here's a very rough animated capture of 2012 QG42 I made this evening. This is based on 20 x 1 minute exposures, SXVF-H9 cam, 250mm f/4.7 Newtonian. The field of view is about 28 arc-minutes across. Lots of patchy cirrus floating past, so it's a bit 'blotchy'!

Currently around magnitude 15. I find it amazing that a couple of weeks ago we didn't even know this 350 metre lump of rock even existed, and here it is skimming past. It wasn't in precisely the position determined by Carte du Ciel, but still in the same field of view for the cam to pick it up..

2012_QG42_60s001.gif

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Well I gave this a good go last night but I could not see it! I kept thinking I had found it and then realised that it was just the earths motion.

I used Carte Du ciel, after updating its data, last night to produce charts and kept going in and out checking it was on actual time and refreshing the search to check the position.

Last night it was passing 22h 45 min and dec -3 14 basically below the Pegasus square and it was passing through a triangle of stars at 11pm according to the charts.

I managed to verify many faint stars in the area down to magnitude 14.2 with averted vision. The asteroid according to my notes from the BAA gives a magnitude of 13.8.

So either I was looking in the wrong place...must recheck CDC has my location correct BST etc..or its fainter than mag 14??

I would welcome any other observations to check which it is!

So the cloud comes in now in the UK and I will try again in a few days when high pressure returns..

On the plus side I managed to spot a few more galaxies for my collection in the area...7711 7722 7727 7723 7606 the brightest was 7727 despite its low altitude at midnight.

All good fun!

Mark Stuart

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Nice effort! As you say, all good fun.

I noticed that it wan't in precisely the 'correct' location in Carte du Ciel, so maybe that's why you couldn't find it. That might be a parallax thing, as it's relatively close enough for your position on the globe to affect its location in the sky, but probably by only a few arc-minutes..

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Maybe Luke...I will try again and put my lat and long in the JPL web site and get some emphemeris for mid week for Bristol.

It will be moving faster so if I see it then it will be more obvious and it will be moving against the general star drift by then!

Perhaps i need to message you when I am out you can tell me where it is when you find it on your laptop screen and I can then print out the approriate CDC chart and hunt it down!

Mark

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A bit hazy but I am going to try and see it ...near M15 tonight!

Mark

Funny you should mention it. I am trying to image it right now, but it's not where CdC says it should be. I noticed that it will be passing very close to another asteroid, 1596 Itzigsohn, at about 10:30 BST. At least, close enough for it to be well in the same field of view of my cam (about 30 arc-seconds across) I've located Itzigsohn easily (a new asteroid for me), and QG42 is supposed to be about the same magnitude, but the former just isn't there! I must have the wrong co-ordinates.

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