Spectacular success! Why I love this hobby.

[Stu]

After last night’s spectacular failure, I can’t quite believe how well tonight has gone. Looking at the forecast I had no expectations of seeing anything, but I had a free hour between 7.30pm and 8.30pm, so I popped the 8” f8 out to have another go at this pesky asteroid, (7482) 1994 PC1.

The skies looked pretty poor, and I was struggling to see the main stars for somewhere to start a hop from. I made sure my Telrad and 10x60 RACI were properly aligned and made a start. I could barely see Xi Tauri but managed to get the RACI on Menkar and then made my way across to Alrischa, and from there it was surprisingly easy to match star fields in SkySafari and get in the right spot.

I had put a 21mm Ethos in the focuser and it was quite remarkable that as soon as I focused, my eye picked up the movement of the asteroid. It was quite incredible to see it move as I watched, I think it’s probably the fastest solar system object I’ve viewed. It was quite easy to see the changing geometry as it passed by other stars, and I watched it pass very close by several fainter stars, mag 11 plus.

Skysafari has it at mag 10.2 and whilst I didn’t manage a good comparison it seemed about right.

I took a few very bad smartphone shots, just hand held at the eyepiece, good focus was not really possible but I managed to catch three images which showed the movement across about three minutes, 20.36 to 20.38 and they match SkySafari very well. I put them into a little gif.

I finished the session looking at Rigel, beautiful sharp view of the secondary and the primary was very tight. Sigma Orionis looked wonderful, and E and F in the Trap were very clear. I had a quick look at Sirius and it looked promising, though still low, so I may try that a bit later if it stays clear.

So, I just managed to view a 1.1km diameter asteroid which is 2 million km away and travelling at 70,000 kph, and could see it moving in the eyepiece. Quite amazing.

 

 

[Kon]

Fantastic result! I am very envious. It must have been an awesome moment from your description, well done again. I got out my Dob as well but combination of the bright moon and light haze made it impossible to get in the area. Maybe tomorrow night.

[John]

Excellent report and a great achievement Stu

It is really motivating when it all comes together

Early promising clear sky here quickly clouded up so I could not try for the asteroid, or anything else

[Epick Crom]

Great results Stu👍. This is a rare event indeed. This is one of the many things I love about our hobby, it's so dynamic and unpredictable!

[Sunshine]

Incredible! I had no idea one could actually watch it move relative to background stars, it must have been awe inspiring to see!.

[Roy Challen]

Amazing! A tiny spot of light moving through space beats anything on Netflix/Amazon/TV!

[Saganite]

Superb result Stu !!

I also did not realize that its movement against the background stars could be watched in real time, so I will have a go tonight;  thirteen hours of clear sky is forecast for my area today starting 7pm this evening.  I will need all of that to find it probably.   Could be a tiring session....

[Jiggy 67]

That’s really impressive, we’ll done love the way we can actually see some of the geography on the asteroid as it spins in the gif 

[Davesellars]

Well done Stu!   That's a really great job, especially capturing it on camera with a dob!

I really wanted to see if I could observe this but unfortunately the one night it decides to cloud over (thin high clouds mostly) was this night (typical).

[lukebl]

Excellent result. Well done! It was clear all day here, then clouded and fogged over immediately after sunset!

Last night it was motoring along at 122 arc seconds per minute. Tonight it'll still be doing 75 arc secs/min, so should be still noticeable.

[Second Time Around]

That's something that you're never going to forget. Many congratulations!

[Froeng]

Well done! Amazing observation!

[skyhog]

Great report Stu and well done. 

[Astro_Dad]

Excellent result - cloud closed play for me before I’d even started. Will try again tonight. I was also wondering about the possibility of watching the motion relative to  the background. Thanks for inspiring report 👍

[Mr Spock]

Nice result. I’ve never attempted observing anything like this.

[Pixies]

Congrats @Stu. Under what name is out listed in SkySafari? I can't find it (plus version).

[Zermelo]

That's a bit special, Stu.
I'm guessing that the percentage of amateurs to have seen movement of a (natural) orbiting body in real time must be small.

[John]

24 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

That's a bit special, Stu.
I'm guessing that the percentage of amateurs to have seen movement of a (natural) orbiting body in real time must be small.

There was 3122 Florence back in 2017, though that was further away and slower moving (visually) than 1994 PC1:

 

[John]

I've just remembered another one from 2017 - good year for asteroids !:

 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Zermelo said:

That's a bit special, Stu.
I'm guessing that the percentage of amateurs to have seen movement of a (natural) orbiting body in real time must be small.

Thanks Paul, yes really pleased to get it.

I did manage JO25 some years back which was similar I think, not sure it moved quite as fast but may be wrong.

EDIT Just seen that’s my 30,000th post! Craziness! 🤪🤣

[wookie1965]

Well done Stu amazing catch.