Sounds like I have been extremely lucky in grabbing a view of it. For me, the plot from Heaven's Above was SPOT ON, and I picked it up around 2.45am whilst it was around mag 11 and still very slow.
Lucky, because the elements I'd uploaded to the 10" LX200 GPS were off by 10 degrees and at first I wasn't sure which one to trust. Having had a flawless result from HA many times in the past, I trusted its chart and waited to ambush it as it passed HD81103. As I had a few minutes in hand I speculatively started scanning just below there and bingo! A small asterism was slowly mutating shape.
Fortunately at that point I had time to position it at the edge of field and run inside, upstairs and wake the family for a view.
Terrified of losing it and not being able to pick it up again, I manually tracked the critter by hand for over 3 hours. The highlight being that from my location in NE Melbourne it passed right through Southern Pleides. By 6am it was becoming almost too fast to keep up with and I finally gave up for bed, completely covered in mozzie bites as I didn't want to leave the scope to get spray!
In conclusion, I'd have to say this has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever seen - in terms of difficulty, perseverence, extreme good luck, but most of all the sense of here's something actually in motion - something in real time. Not a satellite, or something that only moves over a period of hours. Here it was on its journey over my back yard and I could see it flying past. It was quite a spiritual moment to be honest.
(Bonus) A couple of firey meteors and ISS bright in the NE at 5.13am too!
I had a similar issue later where I planned activities based on 20 second time slots - it would take several attempts to get a snack or drink from the kitchen before I had to run back and guide the scope. What a laugh.
Excellent Work Mark and a great result.Something to remember for many years to come for you.
I didnt get to see the Asteroid " in the flesh" but waited and I did see the ISS about 05.10 here, as yes there were a few good meteors as well.
Managed to ambush the asteroid with 8" newtonian on dob mount.
First between Camelon and Theta Car, next as it passed through theta Car nebula. Could only find it if it passed a brightish star I was looking at at the time. I suspect it was fainter than the predicted 9th mag. I saw it fade on the first observation.
