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Visual sighting of 2012 DA14 with 100mm f/6 binoculars
I just managed to see DA14 for about twenty seconds at around 5a.m. EDT as it crossed Eta Carinae using 45 deg. 100mm f/6 'giant binoculars' with 40mm EPs (x15).
Had noted the asteroid's track in SkySafari Pro (v1.7.3, the version that gives DA's correct co-ordinates from the observer's location ... yippee!) and patiently looked for it for 15 minutes from the Southern Pleiades to Eta. That 20 seconds in Eta was the only time I saw it. I looked away for a minute (checking dew on the objectives), but that was fatal ... the asteroid was lost for good!
The two problems were the object's faintness (mag 9.5?) and its slow movement compared with a satellite. It was a matter of concentrating on each tiny asterism in turn to determine which 'star' was moving.
Ten minutes later, the ISS (?) sailed over, and there was a good bright meteor, so all in all it was worth getting up!
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