Asteroid 2 - Pallas

[Stub Mandrel]

Wow! I'm hooked...

I thought that asteroids would all be faint, tiny specs that needed an extreme stretch to show up. Not so!

Pallas, the second asteroid to be discovered was found by Heinrich Olbers in 1802. Pretty much round it is about 500km in diameter and is an outside runner for elevation to 'dwarf planet' status.

It is smack in the middle of the point-down triangle of bright stars to bottom right of centre in the image. you can see it is slightly elongated over the forty minutes of imaging, despite sigma stacking:

 

[uhb1966]

WOW! extremely impressive!

Did you use the SW 150 with one of your astromodded Canons? How where the 40 mins exposures divided?

[Stub Mandrel]

Not that impressive, it's magnitude 9.9 so not a demanding target!

I used the 130PDS and the 450D and it's 1-minute subs. I think you should easily be able to get it with a 100mm lens and a 30-second exposure.

Ceres next, once it comes out from behind the house. And Neptune.

[Stub Mandrel]

I've done an animation, two frames 38 minutes apart. Almost as much fun as discovering an asteroid!

[Ruud]

Oh, Pallas! Thank you Neil, for marking it in the first image. I'd never have found it otherwise. The animation is a very rewarding experience! Even an observer of my skills will recognize the minor planet in it.

 

[Demonperformer]

Yes, it gets quite addictive.

Use this page. Enter the numbers in blocks of 100 (one on each line), giving start date=today, number of outputs=18, interval=10 days. Tick the two "suppress output" boxes. You will get a result like the image attached, and 'V' will allow you to discover very quickly all the asteroids that are best placed within the next 6 months to enable you to plan a major campaign (smaller number = better).

Happy hunting!

[Stub Mandrel]

7 minutes ago, Demonperformer said:

Enter the numbers in blocks of 100 (one on each line)

I'll stick with the first ten for now!

[Rodd]

What's impressive is not so much the ability of the equipment to document its presence, but the ability of the operator to control the equipment in such fashion.  Looks like a star to me--I would never be able to recognize an asteroid like this....amazing job.  Professional.

[Stub Mandrel]

Flattery welcome :-)

I just used Stellarium to give me coordinates for a GOTO, did the slew and then checked the first sub looked like Stellarium told me it should.

[happy-kat]

Great to capture that.

Last year I enjoyed getting that tiny asteroid 2004 BL86, I aimed my cdslr with a 50mm lens in the general direction it was and took a series 15 second images on a static tripod and still captured it tracking.

Did you also find the hardest bit actually finding the asteroid afterwards on your images?