Asteroid Fly by - Tonight March 2nd

[PeterM]

Sorry all, I just put this under general in the hope more would see it but then thinking about it, it really does belong here. Moderators please close post under general if you will. But this has also made me think perhaps Ice In Space needs a headlined column (very moderated) to list short notice time-dependent transient events like this -brightening supernova (above say mag14), comets brighteneing etc, so that they are automatically highlighted?

Just had this sent to me and thought would post here so as many as possible know about it. More details including ephemeris can be found on space weather. The event occurs around 11.40pm Brisbane time tonight. For those who have clear weather go for it! It will be a challenge but someone her may get it.
PeterM.

"ASTEROID FLYBY: There's no danger of a collision, but newly-discovered asteroid 2009 DD45 will come close enough today when it flies by our planet 72,000 km (0.00048 AU) away. That's only twice the height of a geostationary communications satellite. The asteroid measures 30 to 40 meters across, similar in size to the Tunguska impactor of 1908. Closest approach occurs at approximately 1340 UT (5:40 am PST) on March 2nd. Experienced amateur astronomers may be able to photograph the space rock shining like an 11th magnitude star as it races through the constellations Hydra and Virgo. The timing favors observers in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and east Asia. Visit http://spaceweather.com for updates and ephemerides."

[sheeny (Al)]

Thanks for the heads up, Peter.

I have added it to the Event calendar (See left <----).

Al.

[PeterM]

Thanks Al,
The calendar shows it as March7th but the closest approach is tonight?
PeterM.

[sheeny (Al)]

Thanks Peter...

That would be the old mouse scroll wheel with focus on the date trick...

I have fixed it now (note DSTs in the calendar)

Al.

[PeterM]

See post 8 to generate ephemeris.
PeterM.

[coldspace]

Thanks Peter,
The best way to catch this object would be to use an astrovideo such as a Mallincam or g-star with a fish eye lense .
This would give you an ultra wide all constellation field of view and the sensitivity to capture it and on the move it would make for a great video recording.
pity about the clouds here otherwise I woud give it ago with the Mallincam tonight.
Hopefully someone with can capture a movie of it.

Regards Matt.

[PeterM]

Hi all,
The astreroid was only discovered a few days ago. Below is a link to Sky & Telescope that notes the asteroid will be moving at about half a degree per minute! Good pic of Rob McNaught and Gordon Garradd who discovered it. Seems it will be brighter than mag 13 for just a few hours. With the object so close to Earth you may have to do your ephemeris for your site using the orbital elements. Makes it tough for many I know but for those who can get it and perhaps a video then we can all share in it as I don't think we have a chance in Brissy with the weather.
PeterM.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser.../40504617.html

[PeterM]

Thanks to Colin Drescher for suggesting the site below to generate an ephemeris for your site. Follow your nose but generally.
OBSERVER = don't change
TARGET BODY = click change & type in 2009dd45
OBSERVER LOCATION = click change and put in your latitude and longitude
TIME SPAN = click start time / stop per the instructions
Leave the rest.
Then click generate ephemeris.
Good luck
PeterM.
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi

[rally]

Thanks for the heads up

I have tried to load the ephemeris of 2009DD45 into Stellarium 10.1 but seem to be having problems !

Any advice on what I am doing wrong will be gratefully received !

I have grabbed the Horizons data and after many attempts all resulting in the same error :

"Microsft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Runtime Eror
Program C:\ . . etc etc . . . stellarium.exe
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the applications support team for more information"

Have ocme to th einescapable conclusion that i have stuffed it !

I have tried entering both elliptical and comet orbits with all the specific data for each of them but to no avail - always the same error.

The last data I tried using a comet orbit

[2009DD45]
name = 2009DD45
coord_func = comet_orbit
orbit_Eccentricity = .2658677749332017
radius = 1035.
oblateness = 0.0
albedo = 0.8
lighting = true
halo = true
color = 1.0,1.0,1.0
tex_halo = star16x16.png
tex_map = deimos.png
orbit_TimeAtPericenter = 2454896.753178004
orbit_PericenterDistance = .9910206185457694
orbit_Eccentricity = .2658677749332017
orbit_ArgOfPericenter = 153.7105864337799
orbit_AscendingNode = 172.8882311801781
orbit_Inclination = 13.2335895640192

The elliptical orbit data I used included :

orbit_Epoch = 2454891.5
orbit_Period = 1.56845
orbit_SemiMajorAxis = 1.349921151405112
orbit_AscendingNode = 162.0453593489365
orbit_LongOfPericenter = 166.143873878825639
orbit_MeanLongitude = 522.842736579213139

substituting for some of the Comet orbit data

Thanks

Rally

[Rob_K]

Had a try tonight but no luck - ostensibly a starry night, but thin cloud put anything as dim as mag 10.6 out of reach for me unfortunately. Had generated an easy-to-find field that the asteroid was passing through around peak time, and while I was observing the field at the right time there was nothing to see.

Cheers -

[astroron (Ron)]

I had the 16"set up, but completely clouded out

[Dennis]

Likewise - cloud and rain periods in Brisbane too!

Cheers

Dennis

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Dave Herald (Canberra) caught it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RKKgMDK7A4

Pretty cool video!

[PeterM]

Wow what a great video! I and several others were well and truely clouded out. Thanks for the link.
PeterM.

[astroron (Ron)]

Cool Videothanks

[telecasterguru (Frank)]

Quite extraordinary video.

[ian musgrave]

Originally Posted by rally

Thanks for the heads up

I have tried to load the ephemeris of 2009DD45 into Stellarium 10.1 but seem to be having problems !

Okay, this is a bit late, but I worked it out.
1) Don't use the JPL orbital data, use the MPC data
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephem...l/K09D45D.html
2) This format works in Stellarium 0.9, I'm not sure if it works in Stellarium1.0, but it works just fine in 0.9
[DD45]
name = 2009 DD45
parent = Sun
radius = 0.03
oblateness = 0.0
albedo = 0.423
lighting = true
sidereal_period =
halo = true
color = 1.0,1.0,1.0
tex_halo = star16x16.png
tex_map = nomap.png
coord_func = comet_orbit
orbit_Epoch = 2454880.5
orbit_MeanAnomaly = 349.78408
orbit_SemiMajorAxis = 1.3494665
orbit_Eccentricity = 0.2656185
orbit_ArgOfPericenter = 4.09212
orbit_AscendingNode = 162.04614
orbit_Inclination = 13.22360

For good measure, here's the Celestia .ssc file

======= 8< cut here DD45.ssc 8< ==========================
"2009 DD45" "Sol"
{
Class "asteroid"
Mesh "ky26.cmod"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
Radius 0.015 # maximum semi-axis about 20-30 meters
MeshCenter [ -0.000718 -0.000099 0.000556 ]

InfoURL "http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Unusual/K09D45D.html"

EllipticalOrbit
{
Epoch 2454880.5 # 2009 Feb. 18.0 00:00UT
Period 1.57
SemiMajorAxis 1.3494665
Eccentricity 0.2656185
Inclination 13.22360
AscendingNode 162.04614
ArgOfPericenter 4.09212
MeanAnomaly 349.78408
}

RotationPeriod 0.178

Albedo 0.15

}
=========== 8 < cut here 8< =============================

Cheers! Ian

[glenc (Glen)]

There is a write up in the smh: http://www.smh.com.au/national/aster...0303-8nge.html

[Terry B]

I didn't see the asteroid but did see a very bright meteor at about 2200 hours last night. It came from the zenith and stopped just above alpha cent. It was much brighter than venus and split into 2 before disappearing. I was taking images of the nova in carina at the time but it didn't cross the path of my camera. Still a great site. Was it a little companion?

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Thanks for posting the video address.
Good work Dave(If your looking).Cheers Kev.