February passing asteroid

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Unfortunately, I will be on my way to Austria when it passes, so no hope of viewing it. Forecast for my neck of the woods is solid clouds anyway, so no real loss.

[redneon]

At the minute the met office reckons it's going to be cloudy untl 9pm on Friday for me, which is good if cutting it a little fine

How fast will this thing travel through my 32mm eyepiece? I'm considering taking a series of shots with my camera, if possible.

[rob1]

will be getting the binos on this if the clouds clear up, will be easy to see in a pair of 15x70s i think, doesnt look like we'll be getting a clear night in most of the uk for it though :/

[rob1]

The developers of sky safari have updated the plus and pro versions to be able to give accurate positions for near earth bodies because of this asteroid.

yer i got the update on skysafari plus and then fast forwarded it to friday night and there it was in the handle of the plough at 9:30pm. really hope the clouds clear up!

[yesteryeargames]

Annoying that Thursday the forecast is perfect clear skies here and Friday grey cloud what luck, will still give it a go.

[Photosbykev]

Ideal object for medium-sized binoculars, like a 15x70.

See link in my previous post; it has positions marked every 10 minutes.

Are those heliocentric or geocentric elements that you used? If the former, expect the position to be out by a long way, especially if Starry Night (like most planetarium programs) uses a two-body solution (usually adequate, but not for something this close) instead of a numerically integrated/iterative one. (I have no idea which it uses.) Also, because of the parallax due to its closeness, you must run a topocentric, not geocentric, track.

There's some geocentric ephemerides, based on recent observations, at the bottom of http://www.projectpl...//temp/da14.htm

I ran through this recommended routine to get the data into Starry Night. Looking at the weather forecast it probably doesn't matter how far out it lol

I have noticed that on the link above they are now offering an alternative data entry method from a yahoo user group. When I tried that it pushed the asteroid further east BUT the asteroid track disappeared after about 21:00 ??

[swedonator]

Starry night.. so you can import data to it? sorry for being of topic :-)

[steveb1977]

I had a look at the this in starry night. The path of the astroid looked ok but the timing was way off, a good few hours ahead of what it should have been.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I wouldnt know an asteroid passing by if it came up to me and slapped me in the face with a wet fish. If i saw it, i'd most likely think it was an ordinary satellite.

[Ronnie67]

Fingers crossed on the night, but not looking to good at the mo

[Paul M]

There are a couple of parallel threads on this but so far as position and timing are concerned here are two links.

The Youtube video looks quite a way off!

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/176441-asteroidcomet-15th-feb/page__st__20#entry1826709

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/Feb15-13.jpg

[stringbean]

NASA Television will provide commentary starting at 2pm EST (11 a.m. PST) on Friday, Feb 15, during the close, but safe flyby of a small near-Earth asteroid named 2012 DA14

http://www.nasa.gov/...y_Coverage.html

NASASA Television will provide commentary starting at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) on Friday, Feb. 15, during the close, but safe, flyby of a small near-Earth asteroid named 201

[stevetynant]

Passing through the handle of the Plough 21:30 tommorrow is my best chance with a North facing back garden but astro panel is showing 75% cloud cover at that point so going to be extremely lucky to get a decent view - typically tonight looks like a great observing night. Think I'll take my chance and set up the scope for some observing tonight but just keep the Bins handy for Friday evening.

Typical

[stringbean]

Just received an email from Southern Stars.

We've updated SkySafari Plus and Pro to predict the motion of asteroids and comets using the same highly-acurate solar system physics as NASA and JPL. As a result, unlike any other virtual planetarium program, SkySafari Plus and Pro can pinpoint 2012 DA14 accurately in the sky. As far as we know, ours are the only mobile apps - and maybe the only desktop apps - that can do this.

Here's a six minute YouTube video showing SkySafari Pro on action.

[Scooot]

Just received an email from Southern Stars.

We've updated SkySafari Plus and Pro to predict the motion of asteroids and comets using the same highly-acurate solar system physics as NASA and JPL. As a result, unlike any other virtual planetarium program, SkySafari Plus and Pro can pinpoint 2012 DA14 accurately in the sky. As far as we know, ours are the only mobile apps - and maybe the only desktop apps - that can do this.

Here's a six minute YouTube video showing SkySafari Pro on action.

Hi thanks for this, I knew about the update but I didn't get an email, out of interest is there a setting somewhere requesting info by emails or something?

[Scooot]

Hi thanks for this, I knew about the update but I didn't get an email, out of interest is there a setting somewhere requesting info by emails or something?

just found out how, thanks

[stringbean]

Hi thanks for this, I knew about the update but I didn't get an email, out of interest is there a setting somewhere requesting info by emails or something?

I purchased the Pro version from their website so they have my email address. Maybe I selected an option to receive newsletters or something at the time. Can't quite remember.

[Moonshane]

this seems to be moving quickly. will it be likely to be seen moving against background stars at medium powers in a scope?

[ndastgir]

It was on the radio this morning that if the sky is clear we should see it as a faint moving object in the sky, moving relatively fast.

I wonder if I can catch it with a long exposure photo... I'll try if the sky was clear

[Stu]

Looking at it on Sky Safari it seems to moving at quite a pace. I reckon you'll see it moving against the stars even in binoculars.

Cheers,

Stu

[Moonshane]

cool - cheers Stu - I hoped that would be the case. in my 26mm Nagler I should therefore at 61x and 1.3 degrees have a decent chance with my smaller scope - don't wanna risk moving the 16" yet after the hernia op!

[Moonshane]

this seems a very detailed map http://www.britastro.org/~rmiles/Images/2012DA14_UKchart_1950-2100UT.png

[Moonshane]

this seems a very detailed map http://www.britastro.org/~rmiles/Images/2012DA14_UKchart_1950-2100UT.png and here's the later one http://www.britastro.org/~rmiles/Images/2012DA14_UKchart_2100-0100UT.png

[Steve Ward]

Moving at about one degree a minute apparently . . .

[BinocularSky]

It was on the radio this morning

The bits on Radio 4 Today programme (from "science correspondent" Rebecca Morrelle) have been very misleading:

* It will be visible "half an hour either side of 7:30" : Wrong! In southern England, it will rise at about 7:50 (later in the north)

* It will be a case of "blink and you miss it" or be travelling "really fast" and will "dart across the sky": It's apparent motion will be over 100x slower than the ISS or an airliner at cruising altitude. It will cross the "handle" of the Plough asterism in Ursa Major at about 9:35pm.

Topocentric chart and ephemeris at http://binocularsky.com/binoc_transient.php (very similar to Richard Miles's one for the BAA, which was cited above -- Richard is about 40 miles NW of me, and the parallax difference already becomes apparent.

Decent, up-to-date, topocentric charts and ephemerides generated at Heavens above (enter your location):

http://www.heavens-above.com/