Asteroid 2012 DA14 | WHERE CAN I SEE IT?

[TheAstroChannel]

Hello! as most of you know, there will be a fairly close asteroid fly by next week and i don't know where to look. since Australia will be the lucky country to view it, Any details would be appreciated!! :)

[Shark Bait]

Check out this thread, specifically post #5.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=102731&highlight=2012+DA14

Then plot the JPL coordinates for your location onto a paper star chart.

[ChrisM]

Or even easier, enter your lat/long into Heavens Above, and it will plot the asteroid path for you, noting time along the path.

I compared HA's coords with those from JPL and they agree.

Chris

[OzEclipse]

In the thread referred to, a number of us identified problems with some planetarium programs.

For accurate ephemerides, you need to use one of the following sources :

NASA Horizons Web Interface
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#top

the Ephemeris Service of the Minor Planet Center - at
http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html

(Specify the object as: 2012 DA14 and enter your specific location.)


ChrisM has also identified Heavens Above. I tried this interface quickly. It seems to generate a circular chart depicting the sky displaying ALT AZ over time. Accordingly, it cannot display stars because they move over time. The other two interfaces allow you to choose your own time interval, Heavens Above doesn't give you a choice, it is a default 1 hr intervals. I've used 15min intervals for the latter part. This still leaves 7 degrees between plot points.


Because the object is so close to Earth even a short distance will be noticable eg -

North to South Canberra......2 minutes of arc difference
Brisbane to Sydney..............1 degree difference

If looking with an eyepiece giving a half degree field, it isn't going to matter if you have coords for your town or city and are a few minutes out.

On the other hand, look with a chart generated for the wrong city and it will be a couple of eyepiece fields away. Time is also important. By the time it brightens to easy visibility in a small telescope, it will have an apparent motion of 0.5 deg/min so make sure you have a reasonably accurate time source (A GPS displays time accurate to within a few seconds - this should be good enough) and go to a location in the sky ahead of time and wait for it.


Joe Cali

[bojan]

Just noticed this thread.. I will try to catch it photographically from Johns Hill near Melbourne.

[Nico13]

I will be having a go at it from west of Geelong.
Weather permitting of course :D

[mithrandir]

Sky Safari users see the thread in Mobile Astronomy Apps (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=945946&postcount=1)

[Chif]

Just on this guys. I'm a bit worried that I won't be able to find it. Is it going to be shooting through really fast or will I have the whole night to jump around and look for it?

Are there any star parties or anything organised for that night in SA that anyone knows of?

[Scorpius51]

This might help.

Cheers
John