While the sky doesn’t reflect the forecast the sky does clear at 21:00. Not great winter transparency, but gotta get accustomed to acceptable summer transparency. Because of the transparency and a desire to be productive, and because of an unusually number of bright NEAs, tonight’s plan is strictly “easy” asteroids. Today the supplemental water cooling was setup on the camera, but with a starting air temperature of 66°F it’s not necessary.
Asteroid 106589 is a 4 km sized Apollo now 16.5 magnitude and 0.4 AU distant. Motion is 5’/hr. Imaged from 21:07 – 21:16 at 1 minute exposure, 2X2 binning, -15°C cooling, 1 Hz guiding. Frames 1, 2 & 3 show ∆RA & ∆Dec = 0. S/N is 6 (weak because it’s still twilight) and FWHM is good at 4.3”
Asteroid 66391 Moshup is a 3 km sized Aten now 16.4 mag and 0.2 AU distant. Motion is 5’/hr and uncertainty level is 2. Imaged from 21:27 – 21:34 at 1 min, 2X2, -15C, 1 Hz. Frames 1, 2 & 3 show ∆RA = +0.1 & ∆Dec = 0. S/N is 10 and FWHM is 5”.
Asteroid 86667 is a 2 km sized Aten now 18.1 mag and 0.3 AU distant. Motion is 2’/hr and uncertainty level is 2. Imaged from 21:44 – 21:55 at 2.5 minutes, 2X2, -15C, 1 Hz. Frames 1, 2 & 3 show ∆RA & ∆Dec = 0. S/N is 13 and FWHM is good at 4.2” Photometry reported as 17.3 magnitude, significantly brighter than anticipated.
184990 is a 3 km sized Apollo now 17.2 mag and 0.5 AU distant. Motion is 4’/hr and uncertainty level is 2. Imaged from 22:01 – 22:07 at 1 min, 2X2, -30C, 1 Hz. Frames 1, 2 & 3 show ∆RA & ∆Dec = 0. S/N is 14 and FWHM is good at 3.9” Photometry reported as 16.9 magnitude.
Comet C/2019 N1 ATLAS is 2.9 AU distant and reportedly 14.2 mag. Motion is 1.3’/hr. Imaged from 22:15 – 22:27 at 3 min, 2X2, -15C, 1 Hz. Frames 1, 2 & 3 show ∆RA = +0.1 & ∆Dec = +0.1
Comet C/2017 T2 PANSTARRS is reportedly a brilliant 8.4 magnitude and its 1.6 AU distant. Intended to check out with the 80mm piggyback refractor but forgot. Imaged from 22:34 – 22:45 with 2 minute exposures. The comet nucleus is relatively huge and overlapping one or more stars that preclude running astrometry.
136874 is a 5 km sized Apollo now 17.4 mag and 0.8 AU distant. Motion is 2.3’/hr and uncertainty level is 1. Imaged from 22:51 – 23:00 at 2 min, 2X2, -15C, 1 Hz. Frames 1, 2 & 3 show ∆RA & ∆Dec = 0. S/N is 13 and FWHM is good at 4.4” Photometry reported as 17.5 magnitude.
137199 is a 3 km sized Amor now 16.3 mag and 0.3 AU out. Motion is 3.4’/hr. Imaged from 23:07 – 23:14 at 90 sec, 2X2, -15C, 1 Hz. Frames 1, 2 & 3 show ∆RA & ∆Dec = 0. S/N is 25 and FWHM is good at 5” Photometry reported as 15.9 magnitude.
OUCH! The skeeters are out!
331471 is a 5 km sized Apollo now 16.1 mag and 0.5 AU distant. Motion is 3’/hr. Imaged from 23:18 – 23:25 at 90 sec, 2X2, -15C, 1 Hz. Frames 1, 2 & 3 show ∆RA & ∆Dec = 0. S/N is 29 and FWHM is good at 5” Photometry reported as 15.7 magnitude.
175189 is a 1.4 km sized Amor now 17.7 mag and 0.3 AU distant. Motion is 1’/hr and uncertainty level is 1. Imaged from 23:33 – 23:45 at 3 min exposures. Frames 1, 2 & 3 show ∆RA & ∆Dec = 0. S/N is 12 and FWHM is 4.1” Photometry reported as 17.4 magnitude.
In at 23:53 Air temp’s still nice at 61°F. An amazing (for June) 27 observations forwarded to the MPC.
Conclusions & lessons learned.
Things went so smoothly that I stayed out far deeper into the night than I normally would on a workday. Running only bright objects that take a minimal amount of time to capture and process feels like cheating, but there were so many just hanging up there saying “pick me, pick me”.