ALERT! NEO Asteroid 1998 QE2 Close Approach- 31st May, 2013.

[Suzy]

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/2013/5/19/alert-neo-asteroid-1998-qe2-close-approach.html

-Suzy.

[FJA]

I wonder if it's named after the Cunard liner QE2, late of this parish (Southampton, which is near me)?

[Rob_K]

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/info/OldDesDoc.html

Cheers -

[FJA]

Ha, that's a pity. I have fond memories of that old ship :)
Thanks Rob.

[ZeroID]

I ain't done an asteroid yet so count me in hopefully
<Starts chanting 'anti-cloud' mantras under his breath>

[Suzy]

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 :D

[bojan]

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

[Rob_K]

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 -

[Rob_K]

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/ww271/Rob_Kau/1998QE227May2013animationb.gif
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/1998QE227May2013animation.gif

Also, a stack on stars showing the trail of the asteroid as it moved across the field:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/1998QE227May2013trailtext.jpg

Look forward to more reports on this one! :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[bojan]

Here is my contribution from this evening.
MTO-1100A + 60D, ISO6400, stack of 16x15sec (total 4 mins), crop 2400x1600, resized to 50%.

[ZeroID]

So far it's been clouds ... and rain ... and wind .... and a lot of leaves off the grapevine all over my deck.

[Suzy]

An interesting article, read more here.
http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/05/20/asteroid-9-times-size-of-ocean-liner-approaches-earth/


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

140569

[Suzy]

Many thanks Rob and Bojan for your images :thumbsup:

[Astroman]

Hi Suzy and all,

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faQsamr2-5c

[lazjen]

Here a write up on Bad Astronomy blog (http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/30/asteroid_1998_qe2_2_7_km_long_rock_ will_miss_earth_by_6_million_km.htm l)

[Suzy]

Thanks Andrew & Chris :thumbsup: 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 (http://astroblogger.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/asteroid-1998-qe2-28-may-2013-and.html)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!

[Rob_K]

Goldstone has been radar-imaging it, and it has a moon!
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/30may_asteroidmoon/

Cheers -

[Rob_K]

:rain: :rain: :rain: :rain: :rain: :rain: :sad:

[AstroJunk]

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

[h0ughy]

awesome - i saw Andrew's work and yours is just as impressive:thumbsup:

[AstroJunk]

Thanks, next up is 1999 WC2 in the 13th of June, but not nearly as nice an object - too far away at 39 LD

[astroron]

Nice work Jonathan :)
That lovely coloured finderscope
Really suits that scope;)\
Cheers:thumbsup:

[OzEclipse]

Jonathan.
Fantastic work and with a bit of luck getting the trifecta. Excellent!
Joe

[Suzy]

That was awesome Jonathon- I watched it over and over and over again! :D
Loved the satellite and meteor screaming through next it. :eyepop:
I'll pop this on the IIS fb page later today.

It was raining so I didn't get to see it, you obviously had better weather than me on the northside (I'm on the south). I noticed around 11pm it looked like it was clearing though.

[ZeroID]

Might have some gaps in the clouds tonight. I have it marked as between Saturn and Antares, Close to Zuben.. at about 22:30
Be the first time I've been out on the Ob for nearly a month !
Fingers crossed ...

[ZeroID]

Shoulda kept me big mouf shut, damn clewds musta heard me. Now it's pea soup out there.
< General swearing and muttering noises >

[Rob_K]

Well, I missed it at its closest due to rainy weather but got it at its brightest last night, in early evening. Animation here:
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww271/Rob_Kau/1998QE202June2013anima.gif

Cheers -

[astroron]

Good capture Rob :)
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Rob_K]

Thanks Ron. :thumbsup:

[Astroman]

Well done rob. Completely forgot about it lastnight

[ZeroID]

Well, looks that one wasn't to be for me. Been solid cloud cover since last Thursday and now we have some serious rain. I set up twice over the weekend when it looked promising, must have spooked the cloud gods.

OK, whens the next one, I suspect I won't be around for the return visit of that one :rolleyes:

[Rob_K]

Amazing facts about 1998 QE2's passage past Earth... :rolleyes: ;)

At the time I took the image posted above, 1998 QE2 at 6.1 million kilometres distance subtended an angle of less than 1/10 of an arcsecond.

Earth viewed from the asteroid at a distance of 6.1 million kilometres would look only a quarter of the diameter of the Moon viewed from Earth. Given the Earth's diameter of 12,756 km, try to imagine how tiny a 2.7km diameter rock on Earth would appear from that distance - the equivalent of trying to spot something slightly smaller than Uluru from that distance. (need to get a life...)

Cheers -