Close approach of Asteroid 4179 Toutatis

[lukebl]

Anyone else looking out for this asteroid?

It's making a close approach on the the 11th December, the closest it'll be for a few decades. I've been trying to capture it through gaps in the clouds, at twilight before its slips behind some trees in the garden. It's currently at around 12th mag, but will increase to 10th over the next few days, before plunging back down to below 20th mag next year. Here's a couple of captures of it, captured in less than ideal conditions (twilight with high cloud), and quickly stacked with Astrometrica. Both cover the same timeframe and area, and the star trails show how it's speeded up over the past few days as it gets closer.

This was on the 3rd December. the ephemerides said it should have been around mag 13 then, but my astrometric measurements put it around 14.6.

And here is a capture from this evening. Predicted magnitude 11.9, my measurements 12.6. Anyone else noticed that Toutatis appears to have a lower magnitude than predicted? I have compared my measurements of other objects, which compare with the predicted magnitudes. .

[scoobee]

All interesting stuff

[Chris]

Wow thats some pro-am stuff you're up to there luke, well done on some very interesting work:) Its also humbling to be reminded that we are in a cosmic game of snooker with all that stuff out there!!

[sologuitarist61]

Very good indeed! Impressive stuff

[foundaplanet]

Grand capture you have got there.

I saw one of your earlier posts on this and hope to see if I can get an effort in to image and maybe even an eyeball of it.

Thank you.

[lukebl]

Thanks all,

Still following it .... Here's a brief 30-second capture from last night. I measure it now at mag 12.2 (still fainter than predicted 11.5), and it was passing through the same field of view as (much bigger and more distant) 15th-mag asteroid 318 Magdalena. The field of view is about 28' across.