First images Asteroid DA14. (added another image)

[Nico13 (Ken)]

Hi guys,
Well it's clear enough at the moment so I thought I'd have a go at it and to find it I used Sky Safari to locate it on the iPhone then used that info to point the scope in TheSky6 and bingo.

8" Meade SCT with reducer flattener and my Pentax K5D
300 secs iso 800 and some rough processing.

Upper left and then with Satellite trail

I've added another shot from exactly three hrs later just before I lost it.
You can see the speed increase as the first two shots were five min exposures and the last is only a four min but the distance traveled is significantly further.
The clouds closed in not long after anyway so I was very happy that I started early and caught it while it was still a long way out and traveling slow enough to keep in the frame.

[Nico13 (Ken)]

Currently just between Octans and Hydrus at around 37 deg Altitude and moving fast.

[h0ughy (David)]

if that is it then hi five!!! well done - so it should be heading toward eta C

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Well done Ken!!

No chance here, it's thundery and clouded over.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Nico13 (Ken)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

if that is it then hi five!!! well done - so it should be heading toward eta C

Thanks Houghy,

Yes just been checking track angle and camera angle etc and yes smack on course for Eta C.

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Nico13

Thanks Houghy,

Yes just been checking track angle and camera angle etc and yes smack on course for Eta C.

if you can last all night and the weather holds out for you i hope you get to bag it

[Peter Ward]

Even with a 300mm F3.8 Astrograph and CCD, using MPC elements, I've not been able to detect 2012 DA

Have you done a plate-solve on the object you detected?

[Nico13 (Ken)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

if you can last all night and the weather holds out for you i hope you get to bag it

Thanks mate, I'm going to take a chance and let it go for a few of hrs sleep and pick it up again at around 4.00 am

[Nico13 (Ken)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Even with a 300mm F3.8 Astrograph and CCD, using MPC elements, I've not been able to detect 2012 DA

Have you done a plate-solve on the object you detected?

Hi Peter,
No I haven't done a plate solve, to tell you the truth I've never done one and wouldn't know where to start so I'm guessing that would tell me exactly what I have.

All I'm going on is the real time coordinates from Sky Safari from the iPhone for the location and using those in The sky 6 and there it was exactly where its meant to be and heading in the right direction.
Been tracking it for a couple of hrs now and still have it.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

I've taken the RA/Dec that SSPro gives me for 03:00, pointed the scope there and am just waiting for the time to come around.

Believe it or not, the sky is reasonably clear. The cloud even broke up enough to get some C/2012 F6 shots.

Ken,
The first image solves: http://live.astrometry.net/status.ph...01302-92497811 (centre 00:50:56.394, -81:54:53.200)
The second: http://live.astrometry.net/status.ph...01302-22796260 (centre 00:50:57.525, -81:54:49.350)

[Peter Ward]

At 1.00am I discovered the MPC elements were useless.

Calsky gave much better data....and some results. Will post tomorrow...

[vaztr (Andrew)]

9/10ths cloud in Canberra

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Most cloud stayed away till around 4:00 then 9/10ths. Packed up and then the cloud drifted away. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Will see if anything showed up after a bit of sleep.

[Iain.k (Iain)]

Nicely done, It was a great show here also.

[glenc (Glen)]

It was cloudy here.

[Nico13 (Ken)]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

I've taken the RA/Dec that SSPro gives me for 03:00, pointed the scope there and am just waiting for the time to come around.

Believe it or not, the sky is reasonably clear. The cloud even broke up enough to get some C/2012 F6 shots.

Ken,
The first image solves: http://live.astrometry.net/status.ph...01302-92497811 (centre 00:50:56.394, -81:54:53.200)
The second: http://live.astrometry.net/status.ph...01302-22796260 (centre 00:50:57.525, -81:54:49.350)

Thanks Andrew,
As mentioned I have never done a solve like this before and this proves out that what I had imaged was in fact DA14 so I'm having that warm fuzzy feeling you get when something that appears a difficult task all goes well and that I was able to pick it up while still a long way out at 10:30 on Friday night.
So now I'll solve the images that I have for just after three hrs later when I lost it for some reason, I'll get to see how far off I was.
It didn't last much after that anyway as the clouds closed in about 2.30 maybe 3.00 so I packed up and headed off to bed.
Thanks

Ken.