3 replies to this topic

[Sky King]

(7) Iris made the news in the June 2024 Astronomy magazine, Hot Bytes:

 

"Data from NASA's retired jumbo-jet-borne infrared telescope SOFIA has yielded the first direct detection of water on asteroids. The presence of water on 7 Iris and 20 Massalia supports the idea that asteroids could have delivered water to Earth."

 

 

I was previously attempting to image the asteroids from (1) Ceres to (10) Hygiea in this thread:

 

1    Ceres    60 images, 30 seconds each for 30 minutes.

2    Pallas    35 images, 20 seconds each for 12 minutes.

3      Juno

4     Vesta

5  Astraea

6      Hebe   35 images, 20 seconds each for 12 minutes.

7         Iris   To be completed

8      Flora   38 images, 15 seconds each for 16 minutes.

9      Metis

10  Hygiea   To be completed

 

(3,4,5, and 9 are also linked from previous posts in the above thread.)

 

Unfortunately Hygiea is still at large but here is (7) Iris. I took sixty two-minute exposures for two hours total. 8 EdgeHD, .7 Celestron reducer, ASI533MC Pro and UV/IR filter.

 

 

This is a raw image, rotated vertically and notated by ASTAP.

 

 

 

 

Processed with DSS, Siril and Affinity Photo. DSS was giving me some trouble, so here's one of (7) Iris processed with less stars, and one with more stars, processed with (7) Iris blurred.

 

 

 

Edited by Sky King, 24 May 2024 - 06:37 PM.

[Borodog]

Cool. You could stabilize the frames before making the animated GIF and it would be easier to spot the relative movement between the asteroid and the stars.

[Sky King]

Cool. You could stabilize the frames before making the animated GIF and it would be easier to spot the relative movement between the asteroid and the stars.

You're right, that gif isn't a good representation, I took it down now.  Actually (7) Iris is pretty slow moving. Maybe this is a better way to show it's movement over about two hours:

 

 

 

Edited by Sky King, 24 May 2024 - 06:41 PM.

[Urban Uraniborg]

Nice catch! Your images of Asteroid (7) Iris combined with my time with Iris lead me to believe Asteroid (7) Iris appears like an asteroid in images(and at the eyepiece). The orange-yellow ish color doesn’t shine exactly like a star of a similar color.