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Asteroid 2004 BL86 is coming!

tgo747

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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I can't decide small bright bins or telescope and miss it completely as 8 degree fov versus 2 I know which I stand more chance with.

Also going to set camera up for wide field as that is 54 degree fov.

Hopefully... Just need the sky to clear.

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r3i

r3i

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I struggled to get it into CdC but the track in Stellarium is the same as the right hand track on your chart (nearest to 3 Juno).

Yes I think you're right, the other charts posted in this thread match the right hand track.

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John

John

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According to the chart I'm using it's just about entering Cancer now, passing the Beehive Cluster around midnight. Does that tally with others expecations ?

I've got my 4" refractor and the 31mm Nagler trained on that area of the sky so that should give me a fighting chance of a sighting.

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stevend

stevend

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According to the chart I'm using it's just about entering Cancer now, passing the Beehive Cluster around midnight. Does that tally with others expecations ?

No, you are about 5 hours out. See my earlier posts for live links and skycharts. "It will be approx midway between delta Hydra and beta Cancer at c2330 and reach the Beehive Cluster/M44 around 0530 on the 27th."

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John

John

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No, you are about 5 hours out. See my earlier posts for live links and skycharts. "It will be approx midway between delta Hydra and beta Cancer at c2330 and reach the Beehive Cluster/M44 around 0530 on the 27th."

Thanks Steve - the Sky & Telescope web site have two charts that don't agree on the timing - I was looking at the wrong one ! :rolleyes2:

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stevend

stevend

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Thanks Steve - the Sky & Telescope web site have two charts that don't agree on the timing - I was looking at the wrong one ! :rolleyes2:

No problem. I just hope the cloud stays away long enough for it clear two oak trees.

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Paul M

Paul M

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Whoops. Ignore that message. That data came from my SkySafari Pro, which seems to have incorrect data for the asteroid. According to my Carte du Ciel and other maps It doesn't go anywhere near those galaxies! Sorry.

This got me thinking.

I remember our high speed encounter with DA14 in 2013(?) being part of the motivation for Southern Stars re-working the solar system calculations, so I was surprised to see this.

I just started SkySafari and searched for "2004 BL86", which was found in the database. It was displayed incorrectly. 

However when I searched for "357439" it displayed correctly.

I think there must be two entries in the database, given that CdC has been reported a showing two objects also.

The source does not appear to be selectable in SkySafari but I assume it's an MPC file.

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John

John

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Sky has gone a bit milky here now. Only major constellation stars plus the Moon and Jupiter are visible to the naked eye and I reckon even 9th magnitude is beyond my 4" refractor at the present time :undecided:

Maybe it will improve later when the asteroid is higher in the sky ....

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John

John

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Virtually total cloud cover here now :embarrassed:

If it does clear, the asteroid is going to look like a tiny faint pinpoint of light moving slowly but steadily along across the starry backdrop. I watched a closer, but much smaller one, last year and it was easy to overlook or loose track of even with a scope. It was a bit brighter than this one as well.

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chops

chops

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if anyone else is looking, here's is a useful link to add MPC / Near Earth Objects to Stellarium: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/113971-adding-comets-asteroids-and-small-bodies-to-stellarium/

it's broadly accurate with a couple of minor tweaks (if you've not already got PlugIns>'Solar System Editor' loaded at startup then do this and restart - then the configure button will work.

here's the position at 22:30 16th Jan (now):

post-40258-0-10949500-1422311276_thumb.p

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Davey-T

Davey-T

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Managed to image it across DSLR frame really hard to spot, had to take two pic's and blink them in P'Shop to find it.

Must be tricky to spot visually but it is moving quite quickly so that may help.

Dave

Stellarium co-ords are pretty accurate

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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I have taken about 30+ frames of where it was... but... it steadly got murkier and I could only do 15 second subs and I don't know if that is going to have been enough to pick up a mag 9 object. The LP in the direction it was is not my best direction to look!

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