Asteroid 2012 TC4 tonight

[Davey-T]

Asteroid 2012 TC4 zipping by tonight, might have a small chance of capturing it in the SCT, appears to be going about an arcsecond per second, near to Neptune so may have a chance of imaging that as well, weather not looking good ATM though.

Dave

 

[Davey-T]

Interesting artist impression from MSN, LOL

Dave

 

[Galen Gilmore]

I saw about this as well. Not sure I will have a chance too peek at it, it all depends on my homework...

[xtreemchaos]

is this the one that the doomsdays on youtube are flapping about " thay make my brain hurt wish youtube would put all stuff like that in a nonreal sec instead of astro " anyway if it is and it do hit hope it hits my garden the grass needs cutting . weathers dismal here but ment to get better, if so might have a look with the big newt, thanks for the heads up. charl.

[John]

Going to be a challenge to get visually at that magnitude !

[mdstuart]

Come on guys we can do this. Is there a better hour by hour chart? I can't find one.

Mark

[Vega]

Awesome! 27,300 miles is pretty darn close! If you're clouded out, a live webcast is available here (the article includes closest approach timings for various time zones)- http://www.cometwatch.co.uk/asteroid-2012-tc4-watch-it-live/.

It looks like it's going to be tricky to track the closer to closest approach we get but should be within telescope brightness in the hours before and after. Good luck all, I think we'll need it! :-)

Matt

 

[tooth_dr]

Is there anyway of using a plate solving programe to get close to this and get it located in the FOV of a DSLR?  If anyone can point me in the right direction that would be great.  It's going to be clear tonight, and I might try to image it.

[Davey-T]

13 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Is there anyway of using a plate solving programe to get close to this and get it located in the FOV of a DSLR?  If anyone can point me in the right direction that would be great.  It's going to be clear tonight, and I might try to image it.

Depends on your field of view, going to need a long focal length so ergo small field of view, I usually try to figure out the track and lie in wait for it with the camera looping and try to spot something moving, missed the last one completely but only using Stellarium coordinates, don't know how accurate they are.

Dave

[tooth_dr]

11 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Depends on your field of view, going to need a long focal length so ergo small field of view, I usually try to figure out the track and lie in wait for it with the camera looping and try to spot something moving, missed the last one completely but only using Stellarium coordinates, don't know how accurate they are.

Dave

Ah ok!.  Honestly, thought I was just going to point the 250px fl/1200mm at the general direction and take a few 30s exposures.  Maybe it's too faint or too fast to do this?

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, tooth_dr said:

Ah ok!.  Honestly, thought I was just going to point the 250px fl/1200mm at the general direction and take a few 30s exposures.  Maybe it's too faint or too fast to do this?

Have a look on Stellarium and run the time back and forwards to work out the track then line up the long side of the sensor with it and hope for the best 

Dave

[tooth_dr]

4 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Have a look on Stellarium and run the time back and forwards to work out the track then line up the long side of the sensor with it and hope for the best 

Dave

Any suggestions for exposure time?

[Davey-T]

Probably go for higher than normal ISO as you're not after quality images and take some practice shots to catch as many dim stars as you can.

Looks to be moving about 1 arcsecond a second so if you're into maths you can work out your field of view and get a rough idea of how long it will take to cross your sensor and how far it will move in 30 seconds

Dave

Here's one I did a while ago using DSLR and 70/200 lens piggy backed on the SCT, 30 seconds @ f/4

Asteroid 2004BL86

 

 

[tooth_dr]

Fantastic.  I wouldnt know where to start working that out, but a quick search on the web suggests a 1.06deg FOV along the longest part of the sensor at 1200mm.  This equates to 3816 arc seconds, or just over an hour to cross my FOV!!!  So at 30s subs I'd get 120+ images. 

[Davey-T]

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Fantastic.  I wouldnt know where to start working that out, but a quick search on the web suggests a 1.06deg FOV along the longest part of the sensor at 1200mm.  This equates to 3816 arc seconds, or just over an hour to cross my FOV!!!  So at 30s subs I'd get 120+ images. 

Sounds like a plan , looking at the weather it may be too late here by the time it clears 

Dave

[Galen Gilmore]

I have also been wondering about this, do you think that my 130pds FOV is too narrow to image this? with a 2x Barlow?

[tooth_dr]

Showing my complete ignorance, and I’m not at home and have limited internet access, but what time can we expect to see this, and roughly what part of the sky? 

[Davey-T]

3 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Showing my complete ignorance, and I’m not at home and have limited internet access, but what time can we expect to see this, and roughly what part of the sky? 

You can put the coordinates into Stellarium.

Dave

[tooth_dr]

Just now, Davey-T said:

You can put the coordinates into Stellarium.

Dave

Ok, I’ve never used it and haven’t got it on my pc. Will the asteroid be automatically in it? Lol ? 

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, tooth_dr said:

Ok, I’ve never used it and haven’t got it on my pc. Will the asteroid be automatically in it? Lol ? 

No you have to edit the solar system configuration, bit confusing in the usual computery way, there is a post on here somewhere with instructions, I'll have a look for it, can't remember how to do it without actually doing it 

Dave

[Davey-T]

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Ok, I’ve never used it and haven’t got it on my pc. Will the asteroid be automatically in it? Lol ? 

Can't find the post but I think it goes something like this.

Start Stellarium
In the left hand pop out menu click on the spanner config window
Click on plug ins at top
Scroll down to Solar System edit on left and click
Click on the configure button at the bottom
Click on solar system at top
Click on import orbital elements at bottom
Click on the Asteroid button
Click on select bookmark
Choose NEA near earth asteroid
Type in 2012 TC4 in the search bar
Tick the box beside it
Click add objects
Close all

Open search in Stellarium and type in 2012 TC4 click to search and it will show position.

Told you it was fiddly, hope I haven't missed any steps'

Dave

 

[Davey-T]

Bit of a washout, only had a brief view of where it was between neighbours trees and didn't manage to find it, going to try and find comet ASASSN now.

Dave

[tooth_dr]

Thanks Dave. I only got home there at 10:30, Crystal Clear outside. Opened shed, attached and focused camera, plate solved a lovely image of M45(!), next plate solve orange. Stick my head out of the warm room - bloody raining! 

[tooth_dr]

And Dave those instructions were perfect. Thanks. 

[Davey-T]

Now the Moon's rising so put paid to my comet hunt 

Dave