Asteroid viewing

[Stargazer_00]

So is today's Asteroid going to be visible to eye, bins or scope? I have clear skies forecast right up to 4am from first dark and the projected path is quite easily visible to me in those hours

Bottom of this page:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21442863

What is the best method to locate this object? Not sure how fast it'll be moving against the star background. I was going to line up between Alioth and Megrez around 9:15 and watch it at very low power for a moving object going about centrally between them and then, once located, follow it.

any idea on visible magnitude?

[DirkSteele]

Peak brightness occurs a little before 8pm at around magnitude 7.7 so firmly in binocular territory. By 9pm it will have dimmed to around 8.7. By midnight that will have dropped to +11 and be firmly a telescope object.

I should add this chart is for the South of the UK. Parallax shift means the location of 2012 DA12 will be slightly different for observers in different locations but the magnitude data should be fine.

[Penguin]

What about an SLR on long exposures? I plan to put the Plough at the top of the viewfinder and leave it on continuous exposures of somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds. Will this catch anything? What would a recommended exposure be? I can go up to a 200mm zoom but also back to around 28mm if that would be better.

I might try to find it with binocs and my 4" scope as well.

Regards,

--- Alistair.

[petek314]

According to the information I have from the "heavens above" and the JPL websites and my location as Shropshire, the asteroid should cross the line between Alioth and Megrez at about 21:35 and will be magnitude 9.28. I am going to try and see it pass the tail of Leo at 20:00 when its supposed to be 8mag. Good Luck!

[Stargazing_Cliff]

I'd use pair binoculars quick view skies and have telescope ready.

i have couple cams on skies but at moment here it's clouded out

will have radio detection running for any peaks to monitor.

[Stargazer_00]

Not quite the quality of your photos DirkSteele but I got one of our graphic guys at work to invert the BBC image to make it print friendly:

[Odd Dob]

Weirdly, I'm getting a chart from cartes du ciel that plots DA14 at a slightly different position than all other charts. For example, Heavens Above puts DA14 going past Ursa Major at my position at 2130, but cartes du ciel at 1930! That's quite a discrepancy!

What's going on?

[Stargazer_00]

Dunno. that is weird.

Look what I found on BBC for my location!!

[Odd Dob]

Yeah, sky's apparently looking promising for me too. I might actually get to see the blumming thing! Currently planning on carting my 250mm dob to the middle of a field, as my northen sky is blocked at home. Exciting!

[John]

I'm going to use my widest field eyepiece with my fastest scope so the 4" scope will be showing nearly 4 degrees of sky. I can see down to around mag 12 with that so the asterioid should be visible if I concentrate !

[Stargazer_00]

Just calculating what TFOV i'll get with my current eyepieces and best I can manage is 2.5 degrees with a 25mm @ 60AFOV. I have a 32mm Plossl which has only 50 degrees AFOV - that'd show 2.6' but I'd expect it would also be more difficult to see.

I have a 15mm 82 degree AFOV which would show 2.05' TFOV

the 25mm (BST) is the best choice?

Wish I had a low power 2"

[Codmate]

Looking good for me here tonight. Houses will get in the way until it gets to the plough though :s

[Stargazing_Cliff]

skies seem to be clearing

[OrionTheHunter]

Typically it's cloudy where I am.... This always happens when something interesting such as an asteroid or meteor shower is going to occur. Typical really, but I'll still be out there with my binoculars if the weather's promising!

[Yimini]

Whilst we're all out there looking for DA14 remember what happened in The Day of The Triffids ;-)

[drzeus]

hehe I can't say i do really (getting old!) ... blooming clouded in here and where I am should be appearing pretty soon :-(

[drzeus]

Making do with the ustream views from down under

[x6gas]

Blast it! Been quite a nice day here and was forecast to be clear but it's completely cloudy here now...

[Stargazer_00]

wall to wall white clouds here at the moment and BBC weather tells me its clear :(

[jonathan]

Same here, Orion. According to the BBC weather map the cloud is mainly right over me, clear elsewhere but I can't be arsed driving ten miles away just for a tiny dot that I might not even be able to find.

[ITFC_Sam]

This will be the first time for me looking at an asteroid through a telescope. What can I expect to see? I'm imagining a small point of light similar to a star moving slowly across the sky. Other than using a low powered eyepiece, what else can I do to make finding it easy?

[Pete Presland]

wall to wall white clouds here at the moment and BBC weather tells me its clear :(

exactly what i am thinking!

[drzeus]

This is quite interesting if you have cloudy skies

[drzeus]

DOH heres the link

altho not sure how long cast is

[Pete Presland]

clouds getting even thicker, hope it clears for the GRS/Europa transits later