Starry Night Pro 5 shows Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 73P (mag 10) and Asteroid 2004 XP14 (mag 10) at decent altitudes of 42 deg and 20 deg respectively at 4:00am, Monday 3rd July.
Attached is a screen dump saved as a heavily compressed jpg so excuse the (lack of) quality (131Kb).
The asteroid 2004XP14 will not be seen from southern latitudes at 69 deg north and traveling through Persius Cassiopeia and Cepheus.
It will be seen from North America and Europe, and will require a telescope as it will be about 11th magnitude.
The ephemeris was downloaded from the IAU website and loaded onto The Sky
This is taken from the BBC website.The asteroid, 2004 XP14, should be visible by telescope from N America and Europe, most clearly on Monday.
For something of this size to come this close is unusual
Don Yeomans
Nasa
Asteroid-spotters should look towards the Perseus, Cassiopeia and Cephus, constellations to try to spot it.
It will appear as a moving dot against the stars, said Roger Sinnott, of Sky and Telescope magazine.
Hmm, some confusion here? I have just downloaded the latest asteroid elements for Starry Night Pro 5, and also the asteroid data for The Sky Pro V6 and plotted charts and they both indicate that Asteroid 2004 XP14 will be visible as per the attached chart.
Also, I think that Bill (Argonavis) in another post, did the same in CDC, and concurred? I may get up for the comet, but the asteroid is blocked by a huuuge gum tree.
Just visited Spaceweather which provided an http link to a NASA JPL site where I had to enter Lat, Long, Date, Time etc and the following came up for 2004 XP14:
2006-Jul-02 00:00 UTC RA = 04 23 41.87 DEC = -34 56 42.3
2006-Jul-03 00:00 UTC RA = 03 21 49.71 DEC = +06 52 06.3
So, horizons, clouds and work schedule permitting, 2004 XP14 should be visible from Brisbane.
I saw the Comet this Morning at 03:00, but did not mention it in my observing report.
I will get up for the Shuttle laurnch but not the asteroid or comet
Just acquired the comet, Schwassmann-Wassmann 73P in the 4" Vixen and ST7 and it sure looks pretty. Might try to grab an image every few minutes and make it into a movie to see if there is any movement against the background stars.
Hope you locate it too Ron - I know of your comet finding prowess 1st hand.
I saw the Comet this Morning at 03:00, but did not mention it in my observing report.
