[Launch Alert] Asteroid Flyby

[Brian Webb]

           ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
				  
			 Brian Webb, KD6NRP
		     Ventura County, California
		    E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net
	      Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp
				       
				           2002 August 17 (Saturday) 08:05 PDT
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The following is an alert from Sky & Telescope magazine.

		         FLYBY OF 2002 NY40

On Saturday night, August 17-18, observers in Europe, Africa, and the
Americas are very well positioned to observe the flyby of 2002 NY40, a
recently discovered near-Earth asteroid. During that night alone it
passes through five constellations, beginning in Sagitta and ending up
in Hercules.
 
As mentioned in an earlier AstroAlert, this 0.5-km object passes only
a little outside the Moon's orbit. It is expected to become as bright
as 9th magnitude in the hours leading up to closest approach, which
occurs near 7:47 Universal Time on August 18th. Observers with small
telescopes and even binoculars should be able to witness this rare
event.

Using a magnification of 50x or more, skywatchers should have no
trouble perceiving the object's motion as it glides by background
stars in the field of view. It will be moving at up to 8 arcminutes
per minute of time!

Sky & Telescope has prepared four detailed finder charts for 2002
NY40, showing its path across a 60-degree arc of sky that night. These
charts are PDFs, meaning they can be viewed or printed on a computer
that has Acrobat Reader (free downloadable software).

For links to the charts, see our updated article on the flyby at:

skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/asteroids/article_697_1.asp

The links to the charts are on page 2.

Instead of a single track, the charts show individual tracks as seen
from five different cities: London, Johannesburg, Boston, Buenos
Aires, and Los Angeles. The idea is that you can estimate the
asteroid's track for your own location using these cities for
reference. The magnitude limit for stars is 8.6.

These charts were prepared with the help of the Minor Planet Center's
Ephemeris Service ( http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/mpc.html ), a 
valuable resource in any close encounter of this type.

After printing out one of our charts, you must orient it to match the
field of view of your telescope. To simplify this process, Lawrence 
Garrett (Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers) has devised
a clever observing aid that can be built from simple hardware items
( http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/alpo/minplan/easy/easyview.html ). 

Good luck observing this rather unusual event!   

Roger W. Sinnott
Senior Editor 
Sky & Telescope

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		     ASTEROID FLYBY OBSERVING TRIP

Since my location in Ventura County will likely be plagued by low
clouds tonight, I'll probably pack up my telescope and watch the
asteroid flyby from the mountains above Santa Barbara.

The exact location is a cement water cistern north of Santa Barbara on
East Camino Cielo. The site is at 3,000 feet and should be above the
haze and coastal low clouds.

It's a nice location and the road leading to it is paved and
reasonably safe. If you have GPS or mapping software, the coordinates
are 34 30 57 / 34.5158 north, 119 46 43 / 119.7786 west.

Since the site is in a national forest, you are required to have an
Aventure Pass or risk being cited by a ranger. In all honesty, I've
never seen a ranger in this area since I began visiting this site in
1997.

To get to the cement water cistern, do the following:

1. Go to the intersection of U.S. route 101 and state highway 154
   (this is at located the northwest end of Santa Barbara). 

2. Take highway 154 north towards Lake Cachuma for 8.1 miles until you
   reach the intersection of highway 154 and East Camino Cielo. 

3. Turn right (east) on East Camino Cielo and continue uphill for 4.1
   miles until you see a concrete water tank.

4. Carefully park your car.

I'm not positive that I'll go up to East Camino Cielo tonight, but
I'm seriously considering it. Let me know if you'd be interested in
joining me. Contact me at kd6nrp@earthlink.net.

If you decide to drive to the concrete water cistern tonight, try to
arrive before dark. Few things irritate amateur astronomers more
than having their night vision (or time exposure photos) ruined by
auto headlights.

By the way, this asteroid will supposedly be moving fast enough for
you to see the movement in real-time through a telescope.