2022-02-15, 03:43 PM
Success last night Feb 14!! First time I've been able to use SkyTools to track down one of the fast movers at a near Earth pass (1LD) near the limit of my scope and conditions!!
Moon was just 11° away near the Zenith. I got reminded that for these NEOs, grabbing NEAs at Todays Epoch is not good enough. One absolutely has to use the osculating elements fetched at Horizons as Greg has pointed out and edit the rock's elements. The two positions were over 5' apart (NEA Today vs Osculating for 23:33CST Feb 14). It worked very well as this rock was moving 7'+/min and was magnitude 12.8. Another point I'll make is that elements several days ago were off by ~1' in position. Nice job SkyTools!
ST suggested the 32mm was the ideal eyepiece but I discovered the little rock was only just visible using the 5mm (300x), although I did not try intermediate magnifications. I'm sure that I can re-configure some parameters to get an adjustment. I'm sure moonlight, dirty optics and a missing baffle contributed to the invisible asteroid at low magnification.
Interestingly, this rock did not pop up in the nightly planner when using the list of "Current Bright and Interesting Minor Planet" and filter "Asteroids". I was able to track it along the 1.4° path for just over 10 minutes beginning at 23:21CST from my driveway using my somewhat dirty 13" Dob.
Moon was just 11° away near the Zenith. I got reminded that for these NEOs, grabbing NEAs at Todays Epoch is not good enough. One absolutely has to use the osculating elements fetched at Horizons as Greg has pointed out and edit the rock's elements. The two positions were over 5' apart (NEA Today vs Osculating for 23:33CST Feb 14). It worked very well as this rock was moving 7'+/min and was magnitude 12.8. Another point I'll make is that elements several days ago were off by ~1' in position. Nice job SkyTools!
ST suggested the 32mm was the ideal eyepiece but I discovered the little rock was only just visible using the 5mm (300x), although I did not try intermediate magnifications. I'm sure that I can re-configure some parameters to get an adjustment. I'm sure moonlight, dirty optics and a missing baffle contributed to the invisible asteroid at low magnification.
Interestingly, this rock did not pop up in the nightly planner when using the list of "Current Bright and Interesting Minor Planet" and filter "Asteroids". I was able to track it along the 1.4° path for just over 10 minutes beginning at 23:21CST from my driveway using my somewhat dirty 13" Dob.