Name That Asteriod?

Started by dconra12, 12/08/2009 11:12PM
Posted 12/08/2009 11:12PM Opening Post
I was taking, or attempting to take a picture of the flaming star nebula Sunday night. After stacking an hours worth of exposures I detected what I assume is about a magnitude 14 to 15 asteroid. Its' position was really close to RA05:19:38 DEC+34:45:58 and was in that area at 05:38 Dec. 7, 09 GMT. It was moving from CE to slightly north of CW at a rate of about 47 arc sec/hour.

Since the object was well defined in the exposures I don't think is was a comet so I would think it was an asteroid.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks
Posted 12/09/2009 12:51PM #1
Dale Conrad said:

I was taking, or attempting to take a picture of the flaming star nebula Sunday night. After stacking an hours worth of exposures I detected what I assume is about a magnitude 14 to 15 asteroid. Its' position was really close to RA05:19:38 DEC+34:45:58 and was in that area at 05:38 Dec. 7, 09 GMT. It was moving from CE to slightly north of CW at a rate of about 47 arc sec/hour.

Since the object was well defined in the exposures I don't think is was a comet so I would think it was an asteroid.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

Most planetarium programs will allow you download current asteroid elements and plot positions based on a time of interest.

Uncle Rod

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Waste it with Uncle Rod's Astro Blog!

http://uncle-rods.blogspot.com/
Posted 12/09/2009 08:31PM #2
Hi Dale,
I think I may have identified your object. Looks like you caught a 19.2 mag asteroid 6798 P-L. At 9UT on the 8th, it is near the center of the location you specified and is moving at about 48 arcsec/hr roughly E to W. Here is the info from the Sky 6 via the MPORB.dat database.

Russ


Object name: 6798 P-L
Magnitude: 19.2
Equatorial: RA: 05h 20m 48s Dec: +34°47'40"(current)
Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 20m 05s Dec: +34°47'00"
Horizon: Azim: 128°04'25" Alt: +56°24'13"
Transit time: 01:17 Always above horizon.
Sun distance (au): 2.17
Hour angle: -02h 08m 08s
Air mass: 1.20
Screen x,y: 684.00, 380.00
RA rate (arcsecs/sec): -0.0134
Dec rate (arcsecs/sec): 0.0004
Minor planet epoch month: 12.0000
Minor planet epoch day: 8.9621
Minor planet epoch year: 2009.0000
Minor planet mean anomoly: 50.9915
Minor planet eccentricity: 0.2062
Minor planet semi-major axis: 2.4095
Minor planet inclination: 6.9954
Heliocentric: l: 01°23'13"b: 00°06'42"r: 2.1713
Heliocentric longitude: 01°23'13"
Heliocentric latitude: 00°06'42"
Sidereal time: 03:13
Click distance: 1.0000
Celestial type: 39
Index: 356997
Text record start: 0
Angular separation: 54°09'30"