Parallax measurements of Asteroid 2012 DA14

[orestis]

Hi Everyone,

As most of you would know, recently Asteroid 2012 DA14 passed very close to Earth.

I was able to take a couple of images albiet poor in quality, many others also took photos of this object. VonTom a member on iceinspace also took photos of the object specifically around the same time I did.

The resulting images are added for reference.

I tried to find accurate maps of this region showing the amount of arc but none where found and off a rough estimate of 1 degree. I was able to come up with an answer that agrees with the predictions.

Using 1 degree as the parallax angle and the distance between us (Brisbane QLD - Bowral NSW) which was about 1000km I was able to come up with a value of 28,649 km. Which agrees with the prediction that it would be below geosynchronous satellites which are 30,000km .

So I was just wondering, If someone with a bit more expertise on the theory and data available can come up with a more accurate result.

Thanks in advance
Orestis

PS- Also based on the distance value to the asteroid and the size of trail in 20 seconds I came up with a velocity of 5km/s which seems quite fast, but I cannot find any velocity values on the net to confirm.

[Robh (Rob)]

Hi Orestis,

Not really sure what your after. In the image, the two bright 5th magnitude stars t1 Carinae and HR 4177 either side of your arrow are about 30 arc minutes apart. The arc shown is about 8 arcminutes. Is that arc the path of 2012 DA14 over 20 seconds?

JPL NASA at
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/neo_...show=1&from=20
gives 7.82 km/sec at closest approach.

Regards, Rob