Asteroid 2012 DA14

[Peter Ward]

With all the excitement in trying to find this fast moving rock in space, amid cloud breaks and dud co-ordinates... I didn't take time to check the camera focus.... which is a tad off... anyway still got some results. :)

the link is here (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery223.html)

[Larryp]

Great result, Peter!

[glenc]

Excellent images Peter. :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Thanks guys... Roll-over now added.

Must admit to feeling a little weary after having retired at 3:30am

[Nico13]

Peter I'm glad you were able to get some images after a slow start for reasons beyond your control.
Where I was able to get onto it early I lost it around 2.00 am but am happy with the three hrs of tracking and images I got.

[Peter Ward]

You did well too Ken!

I'm still puzzled as to why the disparity with the MPC/TheSky's orbital elements, and Calsky.....but also have to say your images were the reason I looked elsewhere for a working solution. :thumbsup:

[John Hothersall]

A good catch for the records which makes deep space imaging look very lazy.

John.

[astronobob]

Great record and results Peter :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Thanks



Thanks, I enjoyed the challenge. With only a 1 degree field and set of tabulated co-ordinates (that were accurate) it was a case of:
slew to position-x,
watch clock
start an exposure, literally to the second,
and hope DA14 sails through. Reminded me of an ISS solar-transit... blink and you'll miss it !

[orestis]

Sweet results Peter,

Love the animation, showing the asteroids motion.

Cheers
Orestis:thumbsup:

[anthony.tony]

Nice Work -Steve Quirk did a Brilliant movie showing the Asteriod Moving Through Eta Carinae with a Gstar CCD Camera and a 135mm Lens it's Stunning- Tony

[mithrandir]

The question to ask of most programs, TheSky included, is do they do a multi-body solution that includes Earth and Moon. Southern Stars only added this computation to Sky Safari during the week.

Anything large or more distant than say half a million kilometres will have little perturbation, but something as small and near as DA14 gets hugely affected. I got these elements from JPL. Notice how they jump on the 16th.
2013-02-10 K12D14A 24.22 0.15 K1300 70.64549 271.15881 147.20706 10.36647 0.1085675 0.98235233 0.8934008 (2012 DA14)
2013-02-11 K12D14A 24.13 0.15 K1301 71.61109 271.17203 147.20324 10.37367 0.1086365 0.98229246 0.8933679 (2012 DA14)
2013-02-12 K12D14A 24.11 0.15 K1302 72.56927 271.18972 147.19853 10.38466 0.1087398 0.98220839 0.8933154 (2012 DA14)
2013-02-13 K12D14A 24.09 0.15 K1303 73.51337 271.21518 147.19238 10.40343 0.1089120 0.98207872 0.8932214 (2012 DA14)
2013-02-14 K12D14A 24.10 0.15 K1304 74.42501 271.25616 147.18353 10.44269 0.1092590 0.98184447 0.8930155 (2012 DA14)
2013-02-15 K12D14A 24.11 0.15 K1305 75.23114 271.32664 147.16751 10.57649 0.1103417 0.98126606 0.8922806 (2012 DA14)
2013-02-16 K12D14A 24.11 0.15 K1306 159.29679 197.51677 147.10697 12.66171 0.0922368 1.13730348 0.8251338 (2012 DA14)
2013-02-17 K12D14A 24.11 0.15 K1306 159.29679 197.51677 147.10697 12.66171 0.0922368 1.13730348 0.8251338 (2012 DA14)