Kiwi spots asteroid before NASA

[Kal]

Nice work by a kiwi amateur! :)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/3006310/Kiwi-spots-asteroid-before-NASA

It was nearly 2am one day last month when Ms McCormick decided to ditch the planet hunt in her home observatory and measure the position and orbit of a comet.
"I was measuring away and feeling tired, so I thought I'd better check the data," she says.
"I'm looking at the cometary data and there was this little thing moving through the field that I thought shouldn't be there."
She promptly sent the object's co-ordinates to double check with the American database.
Sure enough, no one had seen it before.

[allan gould]

Really nice work, but she had to be aware of what she was doing to recognise the event.

[jjjnettie]

:D Well spotted!
And she did it from town!:eyepop::bowdown:
Smart lady, sell the naming rights and set up a new Obs.:lol:

[Jabba]

wow thats awesome!

[FredSnerd]

Is that a 20" meade shes got in her observatory. Certainly looks like an SCT

[Kal]

It certainly looks big, but it is just a trick of the camera from the way the image was taken. It's hard to tell what size it is though, might be a 12" or a 14"? It is definately a Meade LX200 scope.

Edit - google helps me find out it is a 0.36M (14") Meade LX200 - http://www.farmcoveobs.co.nz/

[FredSnerd]

Thanks Andrew. A 14" Meade hey. Nice set up too in her observatory.

[renormalised]

Good work...hope she keeps looking for more:D

Nice scope too:D:D

[GrahamL]

Read a little more on her , wow thats some pretty serious amateur work shes doing as well , great to see :)