Near Earth Asteroid

[timwetherell]

Tracking near earth asteroid 2014JO25 over Exmoor last night. Hard to imagine that this tiny spot of light drifting gently across the sky is same kind of object that blasted the dinosaurs off the face of the earth 66 million years ago! image is LR reversed due to the diagonal in my refractor

[John]

Nice report and sketch Tim

We got some half decent skies to observe this here as well. Awesome to think that this thing was around the size of the town I live in, but 1.1 million miles off. It's another "peanut" from these NASA / Goldstone images:

 

[Stu]

Great sketch Tim! Tricky conditions here but I tracked it from around 10.20 to 11.05 ish. Amazing!

[John]

I've just remided myself of a really close shave - Asteroid 2012 DA14. I managed to catch this one back in 2013:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/177548-asteroid-2012-da14/

Only 150 feet across but boy did that one come close at 17,000 miles / 27,000 km

Closer than some satellites !

Co-incidentally (or is it ?) I observed that one as it passed through Canes Venatici as well

[timwetherell]

8 hours ago, John said:

 

[timwetherell]

Wow, that is close! interesting it was in Canes Venatici too. Canes Venatici is my constellation of the moment, mostly because after years of struggle I've finally (with the help of youtube) discovered how to pronounce it

 

[John]

27 minutes ago, timwetherell said:

Wow, that is close! interesting it was in Canes Venatici too. Canes Venatici is my constellation of the moment, mostly because after years of struggle I've finally (with the help of youtube) discovered how to pronounce it

 

You can drop it casually into conversations now then ?

 

[rockystar]

very nice, can't believe how quickly it moves with respect to the stars.

[timwetherell]

On 4/23/2017 at 10:07, rockystar said:

very nice, can't believe how quickly it moves with respect to the stars.

Yes, it was amazing to see an asteroid moving before my very eyes