The Big "D" does it again on Spaceweather.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Our intrepid capturer of the obscure and maddeningly challenging has done it again. Dennis has had his animation of asteroid 1620 Geographos posted front page over at space weather.

Well deserved Dennis.

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

I've said it before Dennis and I'm happy to say it again....

" You're da Man !!! "

You never fail to surprise with the various ways you find to push the envelope of astro-imaging....

(quoted from Spaceweather)
"at closest approach on March 17th, the oblong 5 x 2 km-wide space rock will be almost 12 million miles away"

5 km long, in excess of 12 MILLION miles away .... at closest approach that is!

Da Man !!!!!!!!!!!

[Ingo]

Excellent image. Congrats.

I know the guy who moderates which pictures go on the front page

[Dennis]

Thanks guys. The quality of the animation is quite poor as I had to contend with occasional thin, high cloud and sloppy technique. Due to lack of quality telescope time recently, I was a bit rusty in setting up but once the rig was up and running, I was reluctant to stop the program to tweak things.

It’s been quite a while since I submitted a piece of work so I was pleasantly surprised to see it on Spaceweather.

Cheers

Dennis

PS – Ingo, please pass on my thanks to your friend – the Spaceweather site is an absolute treasure trove of information, events and current news.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Onya Dennis a fine effort...

[glenc (Glen)]

Congratulations Dennis.

[spacezebra (Petra)]

This is excellent Dennis

Well done and congrats

Cheers Petra

[RB (Andrew)]

Congrats once again Dennis, a well deserved SW front page achievement !!!

Originally Posted by Ingo

I know the guy who moderates which pictures go on the front page

Can you please apologise to your SW friend on Houghy's behalf for the comments he made on the southern hemisphere moon, it was all tongue in cheek......

[Matty P (Matt)]

A great effort!

Congrats and well done Dennis.

You should be very proud.

[h0ughy (David)]

yep he has done it in style once again

[Dennis]

LOL! Thanks and wake up Dave, you’re normally 1st off the mark!

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

LOL! Thanks and wake up Dave, you’re normally 1st off the mark!

Cheers

Dennis

yes mate i an\m a bit slow - i have had a huge week - and not astro wise either - i hate work

[Outbackmanyep]

Thats really incredible stuff!

I know Gordon Garradd has done one on 433 Eros, i would like to learn how to do these one of these days!

Well done Dennis!

Cheers!

[Dennis]

Hi OBMY

Thanks! Gordon produces some amazing stuff, his dedication and skills astound me.

If you have a GoTo mount and a planetarium program such as The Sky, then capturing the trail of an asteroid is relatively straightforward and very enjoyable, not to mention exciting.

I started off a few years ago by taking a series of images of Pluto over a few nights and was amazed at the results. The Pluto trials helped me hone my skills in identifying small star fields in The Sky and also demonstrated that my GoTo’s could locate objects I simply couldn’t see, which gave me some confidence for moving onto some of the faster moving objects.

The ST7 CCD camera is a big bonus as its sensitivity can get me down to mag 16 ish in just 60 seconds, although with such (relatively) short exposures using an F9 or F12 system I get a fair bit of objectionable noise.

Its definitely worth having a go at some of the brighter minor planets, I’m often surprised at how many The Sky can find in an image – they seem to be everywhere you look!

Cheers

Dennis