Near Earth Object 2010 AL30 – 2 frame animation

Dennis · #1 12-01-2010, 11:55 PM

Earlier in the day I was taking some images of the Sun spot AR1040 and after processing them, I noticed Ricci’s post on 2010 AL30 so visited Spaceweather to discover a new listing for NEO 2010 AL30. The JPL Horizons site revealed that this object should be visible from Brisbane on 12th Jan at around mag 16.4.

I left my gear set up in the back garden but around dusk, banks of clouds rolled in, covering the NE thus threatening to spoil the evening session. After playing hide-and-seek with the clouds during the early evening, I eventually managed to grab 2 frames that just about revealed the faint, but very fast moving NEO, before the clouds blotted out that region. The 1st frame was through thin cloud and I didn’t have time to set up auto guiding so the 120 sec exposures are unguided.

Cheers

Dennis

AstroJunk (Jonathan) · #2 13-01-2010, 12:33 AM

Top shot Dennis,

I had a go myself, but couldn't detect it where I was looking!

Fingers crossed we get some clear patches tomorrow when it brightens (and speeds) up.

mswhin63 (Malcolm) · #3 13-01-2010, 01:29 AM

Gratz on catching it. Damn it's small

iceman (Mike) · #4 13-01-2010, 04:57 AM

Nice catch Dennis, well done!

spacezebra (Petra) · #5 13-01-2010, 07:59 AM

Great capture Dennis

Noticed your capture on Space Weather - well done!

Cheers Petra d.

theodog (Jeff) · #6 13-01-2010, 08:37 AM

Good one Dennis.
Sure is a quick faint sucker.
Well done.

Dennis · #7 13-01-2010, 09:55 AM

Thank you for looking and leaving your words of encouragement and appreciation.

All in all, it was quite a trying session; a roller coaster ride of hope and frustration. I used the bright stars of Procyon and Gomeisa in Canis Minor to GoTo and Sync on, on my way to NEO 2010 AL30 but was dogged by clouds in the N and NE, right where the NEO was visiting!

After enjoying the luck of the Irish early on, to grab these 2 opportunistic frames, I loitered until almost 1:00am hoping for clearer conditions. Mars and Crux were magnificent in the (clear!) E and S respectively, but a dogged cloud bank blanketed the N and NE, its front edge straddling Procyon and Gomeisa, just keeping the NEO out of sight.

I was pleased that the C9.25 at F6.3 managed to record the faint trail of the mag 16.4 NEO as I had failed with the Mewlon 180 at F9.6 on another (mag 16.8) object in 2009. Although I easily recorded stars between mag 17 and 18, the light from these rapidly moving NEO’s is spread out along their trail – if only they would pause and pose!

Good luck to those who are going out tonight to view or record this fast, fleeting object.

Cheers

Dennis

Ric · #8 13-01-2010, 10:08 AM

Great work Dennis.

It sure looks like a tricky little beggar.

Cheers

Joel Warren · #9 13-01-2010, 11:32 AM

Outstanding work Dennis, congratulations. This is the lead story on drudgereport.com. Not sure how popular that webpage is in other parts of the world, but in the U.S., when a story hits his headlines, its big news.

Liz · #10 13-01-2010, 11:51 AM

Wow!! Well done Dennis, impressive capture

Matt Wastell (Matt) · #11 13-01-2010, 12:16 PM

Great capture - a tiny object - will we ever know what it is? Natural or man made?

Kevnool (Kev) · #12 13-01-2010, 12:57 PM

Impressive Dennis as you say small and very fast the little bugger.
All your work i see Dennis is great and it must be so rewarding to you.
Cheers Kev.

Darth Wader (Wade) · #13 13-01-2010, 01:51 PM

Nice work Dennis! Ditto what Kev has said above.

danielsun · #14 13-01-2010, 06:29 PM

Your hard work and frustration paid off well.

Excellent work Dennis

.

Cheers Daniel.