ASTEROID FLYBY: One week from today, on July 3rd, asteroid 2004 XP14 will fly past Earth barely farther away than the Moon. There's no danger of a collision, just a great photo-op for experienced amateur astronomers. The space rock is big enough (600 meters wide) and bright enough (11th magnitude) to see and photograph through backyard telescopes. Observing tips, a sky map and ephemerides are available at SpaceWeather.com .

Thanks for the tip, Woody, I'll have to take the astro binocs on vacation with me and see if I can spot it!
Rich

Barely farther than the moon? That's pretty close!

Too close for comfort, I say! :shock: But it would be cool to observe, if it ever clears up!

XP14 is enough of an event that a bunch of guys from one of my clubs are joining me in the wee hours of July 3rd. It'll be a challenge for sure. For details as to how we're going about it see
http://assne.org/board/viewtopic.php?t=329

Pete Peterson

Pete:
I'm going to be in Marion Mass. then, so I'd like to join you guys if I might, and if I can find my way.
There might be darker skies inland and away from Fall River & New Bed's lights.
This rock'll be somewhat to the North. I'm used to sort of ignoring the North and concentrating on the "parade of the skies" to the South...
Gotta get my head working right...

I'll have to get SWMBO to allow me to bring along Victoria's XT8.
Those astro binocs I mentioned earlier probably won't do the trick.

Vick will surely want to come too!
Should I register at ASSNE's forum and join in the chatter?

I'm wondering which EP to use? My Nagler 22 Type 4? Vick's Panoptic 35? My Pentax 14?
What'll it take to have the combination of wide field of view and bright enough to show the dim rock...

Is this the Pardon Gray Preserve in the image?
It seems the most likely cantidate...
Rich

You'd be most welcome to join us Rick. I suggest that you sign in on the ASSNE bulletin board (it's open to all). Introduce yourself as a friend of mine. As the event draws near, we'll be watching the weather closely and making a go-nogo decision. My phone number is 401-245-4068 and I'm just over the MA line in RI.

You photo is oriented with N to the top, and guess what it shows in the NE corner? A 1000' communication tower! Complete with lights! Right in line with the plotted course of the asteroid.

So we're working on a couple of alternate sites. We'll have something workable and not too far from Marion.

If you can't bring your own scope don't worry about it. This club is about having a good time under the stars with friends. We all share our scopes and eyepieces around.

Pete Peterson

Thanks, Pete! I'll do that. We'll bring the XT8 anyway so that Vick can show Jupiter to her cousins!
Can't miss an opportunity for outreach, can we?
Maybe this rain'll buzz off in time to give us a good night... Hope so.

I have a green laser and a Mac laptop with Starry Night Pro which might help.
If just one of us finds the thing, he can point it out for everybody while looking at it through the eyepiece and pointing with the GLP.
I've done this for Vick to help her find things.
I look at whatever it is with a low power EP (like my favorite Nagler 22) and put the GLP on target.
Then everybody can home in on the thing with the Telrads!
Rich

Mike / Woody - if we start doing the clear skies dance now maybe we'll see it. Coyle Field, with it's low horizons and dark northern sky, sure would be a good place to do some viewing and imaging. Any interest in meeting me there?

Ken 8)

Ken, i would love to , but unfortunately not going to be around :x ... being the 4th weekend, I'll be heading down to Stone Harbor with some friends. I'm taking my scope so maybe I'll be able to catch it.

Pete:
I'm all registered at ASSNE.org, and have posted there. The site looks almost identical to this one, so it's easy to work.
I even put my CSC in my sig line with a simple cut & paste from here!
I didn't see anybody else there doing that...

All told it's a good thing for a club to do, and a good alternative
to doing everything by a Yahoo email group like my club does.

There are a couple spammers there, though, selling drugs! Yuck!
Rich

Pete,
I poked around that site too! So, did you ever finish your posts about the ToUcam? Lust Satiated? LOL !

Ken

Pete:
I'm posting this image here to see if I can get it to insert at ASSNE.
I think it'll work. Here is the area of Bill Gucfa's place with 6 possible sites marked.
Which is it?

Google maps thinks it's #1...
Rich

It inserted like a charm over at ASSNE! The forum there is virtually identical to this one and so it's easy as can be to use!
They just don't have the "Choose File" and "host it!" buttons like we do, so they don't have Gustavo's magical programming going for them!
Rich

I'm going out tonight or tomorrow night to do a little eyepiece testing to see what a mag 11 star looks like.
I want to know if I can spot this rock in my Nagler 22 or Victoria's Panoptic 35,
which covers a little more real estate than the 22, though at lower power.

Sooooo....

I went into Starry Night Pro and centered on the Coathanger and
grabbed up a graphic and took it into PhotoShop and made this graphic:

It's going to bugger up the screen width, requiring scrolling,
so I'll hit returns on my text to keep it in a column.
I'll delete the graphic link next week to keep the scrolllllling to a minimum.
Rich

Here is the location of XP-14 at 3am Monday morning. XP-14 is in center of image.

I'm in Fishkill NY as I type this, en route to Mass for vacation. I'll be going out to bag this rock Sunday night! What fun!

I wish I could afford the time to swing by Fort Ann, Rick, on the way back. I was driving through PA yesterday and thinking it'd be fun to just drop in unannounced at your place, just knock on the door, but after taking a good look at the map this morning, I see its a couple hundred miles out of the way. That'd make us late getting home and Sue has to work the next morning... Oh well.
Rich

Hi Rich,

Sorry our New England weather jinxed our planned viewing of 2004 XP14. We'd been looking forward to meeting with you.

Since you've got family up this way, and since I'm only 10 minutes off of I-195, perhaps you'll drop by and check out the new Explora-Dome based observatory next time you're up this way.

Pete Peterson
Barrington RI

Pete:
Thanks! I hope your dome gets delivered soon! Be sure to post pix, of course!
Rich (in Marion for the moment)