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  #1  
Old 19-05-2013, 11:41 PM
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Lightbulb ALERT! NEO Asteroid 1998 QE2 Close Approach- 31st May, 2013.

This asteroid is a 2.1km rock which will make its closest approach to Earth on the 31st of May at an approximate distance of 15.2 Earth-Moon distances. It's a bright (mag. 10.7) fairly slow moving rock travelling through Libra, and according to the article it should be fairly easy to follow.

And a bonus- this may be a good photography opportunity as it makes its way past some galaxies, and also bright enough to do short 30 sec. exposures.

I'm going to give this one a go thru my 10" scope- can't wait- who's in?!

Maps & more details can be viewed here:
http://www.itelescope.net/sky-alerts...-approach.html

-Suzy.
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Old 20-05-2013, 12:03 AM
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I wonder if it's named after the Cunard liner QE2, late of this parish (Southampton, which is near me)?
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Old 20-05-2013, 12:39 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FJA View Post
I wonder if it's named after the Cunard liner QE2, late of this parish (Southampton, which is near me)?
Sadly, Q denotes the half month of discovery (16-31 Aug), and E2 denotes the 55th minor planet discovered in that half month (E=5th, E1=[25+5]=30th, E2=[50+5]=55th). 1998 is the year of discovery.
http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau...OldDesDoc.html

Cheers -
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Old 20-05-2013, 01:01 AM
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Ha, that's a pity. I have fond memories of that old ship
Thanks Rob.
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Old 20-05-2013, 10:15 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Suzy View Post
This asteroid is a 2.1km rock which will make its closest approach to Earth on the 31st of May at an approximate distance of 15.2 Earth-Moon distances. It's a bright (mag. 10.7) fairly slow moving rock travelling through Libra, and according to the article it should be fairly easy to follow.

And a bonus- this may be a good photography opportunity as it makes its way past some galaxies, and also bright enough to do short 30 sec. exposures.

I'm going to give this one a go thru my 10" scope- can't wait- who's in?!

Maps & more details can be viewed here:
http://www.itelescope.net/sky-alerts...-approach.html

-Suzy.
I ain't done an asteroid yet so count me in hopefully
<Starts chanting 'anti-cloud' mantras under his breath>
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Old 21-05-2013, 07:53 AM
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Thanks for asking Fay- I was wondering the same thing.

Good on you Brent- if the weather behaves, you and I both will be able to bag our first asteroid
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Old 21-05-2013, 09:54 AM
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Thanks Suzy for pointing this out..
For those who want to have this asteroid in CdC, here is a recipe:

1) open the file "C:\Program Files\ciel\cat\planet\Asteroides.da t" with notepad or textpad

2) Enter the following as the first line exactly as below, and check the formatting in relation to other lines/entries (insert your line before Ceres entry, this will make it easier to find it later within CdC) and save the file:

1 2013 NEO |2013 04 18.000|0.571045 |2.421509| 12.8542|250.1715 |345.6122 | 2000|351.6072 |16.84| 0.32| 0.00

3) Run CdC and perform the usual thing for displaying the asteroids.

The elements were obtained from here (also could be found on Suzy's link): http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=1998%20QE2&orb=1

Last edited by bojan; 21-05-2013 at 12:11 PM.
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Old 22-05-2013, 12:29 AM
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You might find it wise to get personalised ephemerides from JPL (set observer location) because there is a bit of parallax going on even now. Tonight I did a (very rough) image of the asteroid but the faint dot that was showing didn't seem to exactly match the ephemeris position for that time. After I re-ran the ephemeris with my location set, the position given was spot-on.

I put together a graphic (attached) showing the geocentric position versus the position viewed from my location, using DSS plates with crosshairs generated at the ephemeris positions. Time was 8:24 pm (10:24 UT). Fair difference and it will increase as the lump of rock nears Earth.

The asteroid is currently near the zenith in southern skies immediately after dark, handy with a big bright Moon!

Cheers -
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (JPL ephemeris positions, 10-24, 21 May 2013 UT.jpg)
89.0 KB86 views
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Old 28-05-2013, 10:18 AM
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Getting brighter, easy object in most scopes now! I imaged it again, just before moonrise yesterday evening. Better result than the other night as it was much brighter, and the darker skies helped!

Here are a couple of rough little animations, 1998 QE2 at centre of field. If I had the session over again, I'd have lengthened exposures to get better SNR.
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...animationb.gif
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...3animation.gif

Also, a stack on stars showing the trail of the asteroid as it moved across the field:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...3trailtext.jpg

Look forward to more reports on this one!

Cheers -
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (1998 QE2 27 May 2013, st27 on asteroid textsm.jpg)
170.4 KB63 views
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Old 28-05-2013, 09:37 PM
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Here is my contribution from this evening.
MTO-1100A + 60D, ISO6400, stack of 16x15sec (total 4 mins), crop 2400x1600, resized to 50%.
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (1998_QE2.JPG)
87.8 KB75 views
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Old 30-05-2013, 09:50 AM
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So far it's been clouds ... and rain ... and wind .... and a lot of leaves off the grapevine all over my deck.
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Old 30-05-2013, 09:14 PM
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Quote:
Aside from the asteroid’s hulking mass, another thing that intrigues astronomers about QE2 is that nobody can say with any certainty where it came from.
One clue to its origins, however, is that its surface is said to be covered with a sticky, black residue, suggesting that it may be the remains of a comet that came in close proximity to the sun, Amy Mainzer, a researcher at Jet Propulsion Laboratory at La Cañada Flintridge, California, told the Los Angeles Times.
An interesting article, read more here.
http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/05/...roaches-earth/


A nice image here taken tonight 30/5, from Andrew Wall which he posted on facebook:

Click image for larger version

Name:	Asteroid 1998 QE2 by Andrew Wall..jpg
Views:	41
Size:	50.5 KB
ID:	140569
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Old 30-05-2013, 09:15 PM
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Many thanks Rob and Bojan for your images
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  #14  
Old 30-05-2013, 09:40 PM
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Hi Suzy and all,

Here is a Video of tonights passage of NEO Asteroid 1998 QE2.

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  #15  
Old 31-05-2013, 06:19 AM
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Here a write up on Bad Astronomy blog
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Old 31-05-2013, 10:43 AM
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Thanks Andrew & Chris I'll watch/read soon.

Tonights the night!
Clewwwwwds disappear!!!

It'll be viewable in the constellation of Libra. At magnitude 10.7, this should be a good target for owners of medium sized telescopes (I'd say minimum 6- 8"aperture).

Ian Musgrave's Astroblog page has got great information in helping to find it. He's got a map plotting out the path and the times. Good on you Ian!
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Old 31-05-2013, 01:10 PM
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Goldstone has been radar-imaging it, and it has a moon!
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news..._asteroidmoon/

Cheers -
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Old 01-06-2013, 11:43 AM
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Old 01-06-2013, 08:41 PM
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Anyone who was clouded out, its not too late! It will be bright and observable for a few days, so give it a go if you can.

I got very lucky with the weather and recorded this:

http://youtu.be/ZGd-EGR2X3U
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Old 01-06-2013, 08:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AstroJunk View Post
Anyone who was clouded out, its not too late! It will be bright and observable for a few days, so give it a go if you can.

I got very lucky with the weather and recorded this:

http://youtu.be/ZGd-EGR2X3U
awesome - i saw Andrew's work and yours is just as impressive
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