Asteroid Iris meets M104 Sombrero Galaxy

[WCGucfa]

Hey Guys,


Heads Up!

Today Spaceweather.com mentioned a close pass of Iris by the Sombrero Galaxy. Photo Op time for those with the capable equipment (That ain't ME!).

Bill

[Dan S]

...

[Pete]

Wow! On Monday night when the forecast calls for mostly clear it'll only be 11 arc-minuted separation. I plan on being out should anyone wish to join me.

Pete

[ASSNE Prime]

That is cool, and on a night forecast to be clear? I'll beleive it when I see it! (frustrated with our poor luck regarding weather...)

[AstroGeek]

I kept an eye on the sky all day today and kept my fingers crossed that conditions would allow me to capture asteroid Iris and its close passage to M104 - the Sombrero Galaxy. I got all set up and was ready to start taking images and I looked up and saw an overcast sky. VERY frustrating, to say the least. I kept logging into the overhead satellite view on the internet and it seemed that a break in the clouds was headed my way, so I waited about an hour and things improved at 10:15pm. I captured images for exactly one hour, until 11:15. Sure enough, Iris reveals itself as a streak when all of the images are stacked together. Iris, at magnitude 10.0, passed very close to star TYC 5531 633, at magnitude 10.57. The asteroid's actual motion was upward and towards the right (northwest) in this composite.

TECHNICAL INFO: DSI PRO II camera attached to Tak 130mm refractor. Focal reducer in place to widen the field and shorten the focal length from 1000mm to 630mm. Astronomik IR blocking filter in place. Composite of twenty 3-minute exposures auto-guided with Orion StarShoot guider and PHD software thru AT 66 refractor piggybacked on top of main scope. Yes, I am FINALLY auto-guiding and I couldn't be more thrilled But it still needs a little bit of tweaking.
Watched the Celtics game while imaging was in progress.

You've all played "Count The Galaxies", now it's time for "Find the Asteroid"

[Pete]

So glad that you got the system running Steve. Guiding isn't as critical at the shorter focal lenghts but it helps for Tak sharp images

With asteroids, I usually stick a post-it on the monitor with one corner on the asteroid. I can then visually monitor the otherwise imperceptable movement. With the sky so bright and other objects in the plan I didn't have the patience to spend enough imaging time to make the track visible, but we did see a very minor shift on the monitor.

I've gotta drop up there some good night and bring the DSI III along. Did I ever give you a copy of Meade's significantly improved version 7.03 version of Envisage? Last time I'd looked Meade hadn't posted it for download.

Pete

[Rotorhead]

Nice shot, Steve. You really preserved M104 quite well while getting Iris to show up.

'Tak sharp images' Pete has a sense of humor!