Asteroid 2023 BU - anyone trying to photograph it?

[wimvb]

I have been in a conversation with a swedish fellow astronomer about this asteroid, which will shoot past Earth tonight.

Is anyone else trying to photograph it?

This is compeletly new territory for me, and at the speed that it's going, I will probably miss it. It's a bit like having a landscape photographer trying to get shots of a football match.

Anyhow, does anyone here have experience of such very transient events?

[gorann]

No idea how to do it but with the number of amateur astrophotographers around I am sure someone will catch it by chance, the thing is will he/she realize that it is just not another satellite...

[wimvb]

It will certainly look like a satellite trail. At 8 pm UTC (kl 21.00) it will flash by at more than 250 arcseconds per minute

[Malpi12]

I saw this one on the BBC website earlier today, remarkably close !
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64411469

and looked it up on Van Buitenen  who lists it at mag 26.8
ah! just a bit dim for me, about 16 mags too dim !
http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/neos

Good luck 

 

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, Malpi12 said:

I saw this one on the BBC website earlier today, remarkably close !
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64411469

and looked it up on Van Buitenen  who lists it at mag 26.8
ah! just a bit dim for me, about 16 mags too dim !
http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/neos

Good luck 

 

It shouldn't be that dim. Maybe that site shows the absolute magnitude, which would be the magnitude if the asteroid were at a distance of 10 parsec (32 lightyears). I checked on the site, and it really doesn't say if it is. But there may be a live stream from the Virtual Telescope Project (if the sky clears for them). And if it were a magnitude 26.8 object, that wouldn't be much of a show.

[Malpi12]

19 minutes ago, wimvb said:

It shouldn't be that dim. Maybe that site shows the absolute magnitude, which would be the magnitude if the asteroid were at a distance of 10 parsec (32 lightyears). I checked on the site, and it really doesn't say if it is. 

Good point ! So I dug deeper :-
http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/neo/2023 BU
Rising from 26.8 "today 26Jan"  to 17.5 at "brightest 26Jan"  ???!
More quote -
Based on its absolute magnitude (Hₒ) of 29.4 and an albedo between 0.25 and 0.05, the estimated diameter of 2023 BU is 4 - 8 m.

Still out of my league!
 

[Malpi12]

Virtual Telescope Project  

https://youtu.be/P0sD-qcnvpY

nice show ! Amazing, he is 100km from his scope and can do all that,,,,I have probs when it is 6" in front of me !

Edited January 26, 2023 by Malpi12