Florence on the way

[andrew63]

 Asteroid Florence  is making a close approach over the next few weeks, nearest 1 September. It should be quite bright and seen in small telescope - had a brief mention at the end of sky & night. It's low down in the south, but if you can see Fomalhaut it could be good to follow over the next few weeks as it heads north.

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/asteroid-1981-et3-3122-florence-pass-earth-2017-binoculars

andrew

[harrym]

Should be mag 8.7 at its brightest so a binocular object. It will also move rapidly northwards at its closest approach: it crosses the celestial equator on 1 September so a low southern horizon won't be necessary.

At its fastest it will move at about 24 arcseconds per minute so if it's passing close to a star you might even be able to see it moving in real time.

[SilverAstro]

1 hour ago, andrew63 said:

 Asteroid Florence  is making a close approach over the next few weeks, nearest 1 September. It should be quite bright and seen in small telescope - had a brief mention at the end of sky & night. It's low down in the south, but if you can see Fomalhaut it could be good to follow over the next few weeks.

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/asteroid-1981-et3-3122-florence-pass-earth-2017-binoculars

Nice find, thanks.

I think a bit too low for me on that day but just doing a quick look in Stellarium and if I have things set right it appears to zoom up into the Cygnus area over the following days and St. still giving it a mag9.5

give me a min. and I'll see if I can post a plot/chart for anyone to confirm , ,

 

 

[SilverAstro]

How does this look : (edit ah that seems to have worked !) is this what you are seeing @harrym

[harrym]

Yes that's it

[SilverAstro]

Shame about the Moon ! Can someone do something about it please

[andrew63]

Around closest approach it will be up around M2 area, so quite accessible.  It might be possible from around the 29th to follow it heading toward the M30 region, if you can't view down to Fomalhaut.

 

andrew

[SilverAstro]

Good point ! thanks, I was distracted by the article concentrating on pics for Aug27 and Aug30 guess that is for folks the other side of the pond.

 

[SilverAstro]

Do we know if it is closest in the early morning of 1 Sep or in the evening ? ie night of 31/1 or night of 1/2 ?

[harrym]

It's closest (0.0472 AU) around 13:00 BST on 1 Sep but that distance hardly changes over a couple of days around closest approach (e.g. distance is 0.0486 AU at midnight on 3 Sep)

[SilverAstro]

1 hour ago, harrym said:

It's closest (0.0472 AU) around 13:00 BST on 1 Sep but that distance hardly changes over a couple of days around closest approach (e.g. distance is 0.0486 AU at midnight on 3 Sep)

Thanks, I shall prepare,  (shhh) dont let on to the cloudGods, whispers, charts for all nights both sides   (un-shhhh) Well placed alonside Equuleus but a bit empty sky under Delphinus.

That did surprise me, all the close encounters of a dinosaur kind that I have missed have been a 'here tonight gone forever' type

[andrew63]

Asteroid Florence is one of the largest/brightest objects to pass our way and is heading north. Looking at the latest info. it should be observable for us over the bank holiday weekend. On the 28-29 it will moving toward Messier 30 in Capricornus around 9th magnitude.  Closest approach 1 Sept. and approaching the brightness of Neptune, so could be visible in binoculars.

andrew

[SilverAstro]

It is interesting that this one will hang around for quite a while for folks with big scopes and/or imaging, (down to about mag15 ??) as it goes slowly past Polaris in Dec. :-

[Guy Wells]

We'll continue observations until a lot fainter than that!