Asteroid 2012 DA14

[Peter Ward]

With all the excitement in trying to find this fast moving rock in space, amid cloud breaks and dud co-ordinates... I didn't take time to check the camera focus.... which is a tad off... anyway still got some results.

the link is here

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Great result, Peter!

[glenc (Glen)]

Excellent images Peter.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by glenc

Excellent images Peter.

Originally Posted by Larryp

Great result, Peter!

Thanks guys... Roll-over now added.

Must admit to feeling a little weary after having retired at 3:30am

[Nico13 (Ken)]

Peter I'm glad you were able to get some images after a slow start for reasons beyond your control.
Where I was able to get onto it early I lost it around 2.00 am but am happy with the three hrs of tracking and images I got.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Nico13

Peter I'm glad you were able to get some images after a slow start for reasons beyond your control.
Where I was able to get onto it early I lost it around 2.00 am but am happy with the three hrs of tracking and images I got.

You did well too Ken!

I'm still puzzled as to why the disparity with the MPC/TheSky's orbital elements, and Calsky.....but also have to say your images were the reason I looked elsewhere for a working solution.

[John Hothersall]

A good catch for the records which makes deep space imaging look very lazy.

John.

[astronobob (Bob)]

Great record and results Peter

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by astronobob

Great record and results Peter

Thanks

Originally Posted by John Hothersall

A good catch for the records which makes deep space imaging look very lazy.

John.

Thanks, I enjoyed the challenge. With only a 1 degree field and set of tabulated co-ordinates (that were accurate) it was a case of:
slew to position-x,
watch clock
start an exposure, literally to the second,
and hope DA14 sails through. Reminded me of an ISS solar-transit... blink and you'll miss it !

[orestis]

Sweet results Peter,

Love the animation, showing the asteroids motion.

Cheers
Orestis

[anthony.tony]

Nice Work -Steve Quirk did a Brilliant movie showing the Asteriod Moving Through Eta Carinae with a Gstar CCD Camera and a 135mm Lens it's Stunning- Tony

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

I'm still puzzled as to why the disparity with the MPC/TheSky's orbital elements, and Calsky.....but also have to say your images were the reason I looked elsewhere for a working solution.

The question to ask of most programs, TheSky included, is do they do a multi-body solution that includes Earth and Moon. Southern Stars only added this computation to Sky Safari during the week.

Anything large or more distant than say half a million kilometres will have little perturbation, but something as small and near as DA14 gets hugely affected. I got these elements from JPL. Notice how they jump on the 16th.

2013-02-10    K12D14A 24.22  0.15 K1300  70.64549  271.15881  147.20706   10.36647  0.1085675  0.98235233   0.8934008    (2012 DA14)
2013-02-11    K12D14A 24.13  0.15 K1301  71.61109  271.17203  147.20324   10.37367  0.1086365  0.98229246   0.8933679    (2012 DA14)
2013-02-12    K12D14A 24.11  0.15 K1302  72.56927  271.18972  147.19853   10.38466  0.1087398  0.98220839   0.8933154    (2012 DA14)
2013-02-13    K12D14A 24.09  0.15 K1303  73.51337  271.21518  147.19238   10.40343  0.1089120  0.98207872   0.8932214    (2012 DA14)
2013-02-14    K12D14A 24.10  0.15 K1304  74.42501  271.25616  147.18353   10.44269  0.1092590  0.98184447   0.8930155    (2012 DA14)
2013-02-15    K12D14A 24.11  0.15 K1305  75.23114  271.32664  147.16751   10.57649  0.1103417  0.98126606   0.8922806    (2012 DA14)
2013-02-16    K12D14A 24.11  0.15 K1306 159.29679  197.51677  147.10697   12.66171  0.0922368  1.13730348   0.8251338    (2012 DA14)
2013-02-17    K12D14A 24.11  0.15 K1306 159.29679  197.51677  147.10697   12.66171  0.0922368  1.13730348   0.8251338    (2012 DA14)