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Hello and welcome! Are you also doing astrometry? Either way, I think you are going to find ST4 to be really useful. I've started doing astrometry on NEOs and NEOCP/PCCP objects myself. I've really enjoyed learning everything to be able to pull it off successfully. Along the way, I've been using my alpha version of ST4, and as a matter of course it has evolved some pretty cool features for this sort of thing.
I am doing the beta testing in stages, with each stage focused on different types of observing and/or equipment. I added a Beta Test forum as a subforum of "SkyTools 4" so keep an eye on it for announcements for beta testers there.
Clear skies,
Greg
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I have seen two NEOs, and keep watching for new ones that might become bright on spaceweather.com.
The first was 2012 DA14 on 2013 Feb 15 when it missed Earth by around 20,000 miles. It was amazing to see it shooting across the sky, crossing the field of view of my telescope in less than two minutes.
The other was 2004 BL86 in 2015, which is about 1000 feet across and missed Earth by 3 lunar distances.
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Once, a very long time ago, I saw a comet that moved in the eyepiece (IRAS-Araki-Alcock). Imagine this big bright fuzzy ball that you could see visibly move. I was young at the time and didn't appreciate how unique that was!
Clear skies,
Greg
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2017-11-15, 02:47 AM
(This post was last modified: 2017-11-15, 02:48 AM by theskyhound.)
(2017-11-15, 01:02 AM)Marie Lott Wrote: I'm working on the AstroLeague's NEO observing program (described in this PDF) through the Target Asteroids! folks at the University of Arizona's Lunar & Planetary Laboratory. I use SkyTools to plan which asteroids from the Target Asteroids list I'm going to try to capture. I'm using Astrometrica software (free from "Target Asteroids!") to do the photometry & to generate an MPC report to send to the Minor Planet Center. The ones I've done so far are here: [/url][url=http://www.3leaves.org/4715/mtl/TargetNEO.html]Target NEO log. It's been a lot of fun so far.
Marie
Cool. I'm using Astrometrica too. It has excellent core functions that are accurate and reliable. But I keep wanting to rewrite the interface!
Clear skies,
Greg
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