(3122) Florence

[geolindon]

Bright asteroid up n about right now in Aqr.

Northern Hemisphere centric article;
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/see-asteroid-florence-fly-by-earth-this-week/

[Bendy]

Thanks for the heads up...

Btw, I like the name. All NEOs/asteroids should get nanna names, it makes them sound less threatening - less 'Nibirus' and more 'Nancys' ;)

[Malcolm]

Doesn't show up in SkySafari which is a shame, sure would make it easy to align on.

[geolindon]

:) thanks, but Bendy Ben from Bunbury is a good'n :thumbsup:

Malcolm, i got it on my phone 'sky safari 5 plus' :question:

[ZeroID]

Clouds ..... lots of 'em.

[tonybarry]

I got to see Florence tonight, courtesy of the JPL Horizons ephemeris. It is definitely moving faster than the usual asteroid.

Made a movie of it but not sure how to do a movie here. In the meantime, here are some bitmaps. The NEO was mag 8.4 according to JPL; certainly the brightest thing in the field at the time.

Images are 8 seconds apart. Telescope was LX90-10" @ f/5, Grasshopper Express + ADVS for timekeeping. Dark field applied in Tangra.

Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG