12 replies to this topic

[Napp]

200-foot asteroid 2023 DZ2 will pass inside the orbit of the moon in a few days time.  According to the linked article closest approach will be 19:52 UT (3:52pm EDT) on March 25.  Best time to observe from the Northern Hemisphere will be the night of March 24.  It should be visible in a six inch or larger telescope and it may be possible to see the movement real time.  I previously watched another asteroid on a close approach.  It was really cool to watch it moving slowly through the field against the background stars.  Stellarium Online and Sky Safari have both been updated to include the asteroid's track.  If you are using Sky Safari be sure to update minor body orbit data in settings.  

 

https://earthsky.org...I-yGpzwRUvOw3Qk

 

Here is a chart I created in Sky Safari for 9:30pm EDT March 24. (Edited to post the correct chart)

Attached Thumbnails

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[ButterFly]

It will be moving over 500 arcseconds per minute at around mag 10 on 25 Mar 2023 18:36 UTC.  That's over 8 arcseconds per second and 8 arcminutes per minute.

 

SkySafari will get that orbit wrong.  It doesn't get NEO orbits.  Use NeoDys-2 and a nearby observatory code.  The thing is close, so the observatory code will matter.

[scottinash]

Thank you Mike.  Gonna be cool to attempt an observation but these events are always a bit earily unnerving to me. 

[dhkaiser]

Mike your chart is labeled the 23rd but you call it the 24th.

[Napp]

Mike your chart is labeled the 23rd but you call it the 24th.

You are correct.  Thank you!  I'll edit the post with the correct chart.

[edsmx5]

New chart, old chart, it doesn't matter.  I don't think I'll ever find ANYTHING !! ( said the Noob)

[dhkaiser]

It would be a fun project, unfortunately predicted rain here.

[Nankins]

This looks interesting, but the night of the 24th looks like clouds.

[yuzameh]

  It was really cool to watch it moving slowly through the field against the background stars.

 

Total agreement!  Haven't seen anything like that in about a quarter century, either geographos or toutatis or both.  There have been some bright enough ones in recent years but too fast for me, I think one was going degrees per hour!

 

Slower ones should hopefully not look like slow satellites moving through the field as they usually whip through the field for me, and it's quite fun, especially if they get near a similar mag star, within a few arcsecs, because then you can see them crawl up and pass it.  Actually just watching that over several nights with no in-night movement can be interesting, but real time is very good.  Slower things I have watched move relative to the background sky whlst conveniently passing a similar mag star to ram it home was Pluto over about a week or so, and slowest of all Barnards star, which took a few years.

 

Now if only one would come close enough to scoop up some of these satellite constellations on its way through...

Edited by yuzameh, 18 March 2023 - 10:28 PM.

[ButterFly]

Just don't forget to scan along the track, especially around closest approach.  The uncertainty region is mostly in the timing of this one, with a fairly good track.  Here is a sky chart for the center of the Earth (as in won't work for anyone for very long).  The red line is the uncertainty region.  It's usually not noticeable in these chart and it can be an ellipse for newly discovered ones.  The little piece of green is the track, and a measure of the speed and its direction.

 

[Dave Mitsky]

An asteroid big enough to wipe out a city will zip harmlessly between Earth and the moon's orbit this weekend, missing both celestial bodies.

 

Saturday's close encounter will offer astronomers the chance to study a space rock from just over 100,000 miles (168,000 kilometers) away. That's less than half the distance from here to the moon, making it visible through binoculars and small telescopes.

 

While asteroid flybys are common, NASA said it's rare for one so big to come so close—about once a decade. Scientists estimate its size somewhere between 130 feet and 300 feet (40 meters and 90 meters).

 

Discovered a month ago, the asteroid known as 2023 DZ2 will pass within 320,000 miles (515,000 kilometers) of the moon on Saturday and, several hours later, buzz the Indian Ocean at about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph)

 

https://phys.org/new...oid-chance.html

[Dennis_Oz]

Just found this Post.

 

Here is what 2023 DZ2 looked like from Brisbane last night (23rd March 2023).

 

Here we have the trail of NEO 2023 DZ2 recorded on 23rd March 2023 from our back garden in Brisbane (Bortle 6-7). The Sky X Pro marked this NEO at Mag 16.4.

 

Equipment:

Tak Mewlon 210 F11.5
Tak x0.8 Reducer
Focal Length 2170mm at F10.3 (from plate solve).
QHY268M Pro BIN 1x1
68 x 30 secs

 

Location:

Brisbane, QLD, Australia

UTC: 2023-03-23T09:46 to 2023-03-23T10:28
Local: 2023-03-23 19:46 to 20:28 AEST (UT+10)

 

Image Details:

This is a Full Res 1600x1600 crop from the 6252x4176 original.

 

Astrometry.net results for the 1600x1600 sub-frame crop
Center (RA, Dec): (123.466, 19.180)
Center (RA, hms): 08h 13m 51.872s
Center (Dec, dms): +19° 10' 46.844"
Size: 9.52 x 9.52 arcmin
Radius: 0.112 deg
Pixel scale: 0.357 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 179.6 degrees E of N

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

[Dave Mitsky]

https://www.livescie...oon-on-saturday