Near Earth Asteroid 2009 MC9 - Brisbane 7th August 2009

[Dennis]

Hello,

On Aug 7th, the Near Earth Asteroid 2009 MC9 made its close approach to our planet, at a distance of 70.3 LD. The mag 16 body is 1.2km in size. I managed to grab 10x180 sec exposures to record the trail of this lump of rock, despite the nearby gibbous Moon.

Cheers

Dennis

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Dennis

Nice capture.

It appears that the asteroid is 'rolling' as your 180 sec exposures lines are irregular?

Thanks for sharing.

[Inmykombi]

Interesting image there Dennis. That was a pretty close pass for a 1.2 kilomtere chunk of rock:eyepop:
Thx for sharing.



Hi also to Matt,
Maybe the Apparent Rolling was the time between the exposures ?

Geoffro.

[renormalised]

Nice shot there Dennis....and that's as close as I would like something that big to come!!!!!:eyepop::D:D

[Dennis]

Thanks Matt, Geoff & Karl!

I think that the “wavy” lines are a result of periodic error in the mount and perhaps some contribution from the effects of seeing?

Cheers

Dennis

[AlexN]

Good work as always Dennis..

May I ask where you get the information regarding the positions of objects like this? I'd love to give something like this a go one day!

[Dennis]

Hi Alex

Thanks! For these objects, I go to SpaceWeather (http://spaceweather.com/) where they have a monthly list of Near Earth Asteroids. I then note which are in my magnitude range and make a note of their name.

Next, I fire off The Sky 6 Pro Edition and use it to download the object via the internet as follows:

From the Menu, select “Data”
Then “Comets and Minor Planets”
Click the “Minor Planets Tab”
Select “By Name” in the “From the web” dialogue
Type in the name(s)
Press “Ok”

and then the Sky downloads the data and orbital elements so you can Find the NEA and see if it is visible from the Southern Hemisphere and at a suitable altitude. Some are only visible in the NH and others transit in the daytime, so not all the NEA’s listed on SpaceWeather can be imaged from Brisbane.

Those that are greater than say, 20 LD are usually “easy” to image as they move relatively slowly against the background of fixed stars, so you have plenty of time to GoTo the object, take a few 60-300 sec test images to identify the field and the target and then nudge the ‘scope so that the NEA is positioned where you want it to be. Then, it’s a matter of sitting back and hoping that the clouds don’t roll in!

Those that are less than 10LD usually traverse the field of my ST7 in a few short minutes and I have to jump ahead of their path to make sure I record the trail.

My hairiest capture was XP14 which shot across the field in approx 60 seconds, just at the crack of dawn and I was lucky to capture 2 faint streaks of 30 secs each!

Cheers

Dennis

[AlexN]

Thanks for the details Dennis... I'll have a go at this next time something is going to do a fly-by! :) I don't really have the focal length on my side any more, something that I am endeavouring to remedy as soon as funds allow..

I've bookmarked this thread for future reference in case I forget any of the steps..

Cheers.

[theodog]

Nicely done Dennis.
I must get back into asteroids myself.

[Rob_K]

Great work Dennis, congratulations!! :thumbsup:

Re NEAs, I find this site very easy to use as a one-stop shop - you can establish visibility & generate ephemerides for your own location.
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~fine/Astro/flybys.cgi?start=2008-08-29&sort=H

Cheers -