Big, bright fast mover (7482) 1994 PC1

[theskyhound]

The A symbol issue is something to do with displaying the file contents in a Browser window. If I save the file and then open it, it formats just fine.

[theskyhound]

Sorry by broken I mean for a few hours over several day. Not as one continuous set of hours. I took the ephemeris to a copy to the clipboard and then opened it in Notepad ++. Did the needed edits and then saved for attaching to the post.

Not printing to a file. Copy/paste and then into an editor. Seemed to work fine that way to drop all the hours I did not want (when below horizon, etc).

This is what the filters are for.  Set if for Fair Quality, or maybe better in this case, "Visible (at any difficulty)."

[PMSchu]

Which program did you use to create the 2.04 kB file? The column headers are different that the ST4 ephemeris.

Phil S.

[bigmasterdrago]

Phil, what text editor are you using? Here is a portion of the full ephemeris edited in Word, saved as plain text.


  original ephemeris edit.txt (Size: 4.03 KB / Downloads: 4)

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So it is something that notepad++ is doing to the original text imported and then edited. But only shows up when attached to the Skyhound posts.

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Which program did you use to create the 2.04 kB file? The column headers are different that the ST4 ephemeris.

Phil S.

I used notepad++ to edit but used AstroGrav to create the ephemeris and then exported as a plain text file.

[PMSchu]

That one from Word looks fine. Maybe Notepad is doing something.

Phil S.

[bigmasterdrago]

Sorry by broken I mean for a few hours over several day. Not as one continuous set of hours. I took the ephemeris to a copy to the clipboard and then opened it in Notepad ++. Did the needed edits and then saved for attaching to the post.

Not printing to a file. Copy/paste and then into an editor. Seemed to work fine that way to drop all the hours I did not want (when below horizon, etc).

This is what the filters are for.  Set if for Fair Quality, or maybe better in this case, "Visible (at any difficulty)."

Thanks. Still in the infant learning phase of ST4.

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I think we have this figured out. Now for the regular broadcast...... Big Bad A-- Rock pass.....

Hey Phil, from Columbus, this rock passes just 25" WSW of a 10.4 mag star at 18:59:54CST on the 18th moving ~122"/min high (65°) @azi 213°.

The displacement for us is ~2.5' to the NNE. Pretty big slide in parallax.

[bigmasterdrago]

I've made some discoveries while looking over the ephemerides. Although this rock is large and not especially close to the Earth/Moon system, there does appear to be a small amount of gravitational perturbation. The orbit and positions do get a slight bit of tweaking as it makes its pass. Compared with those at Horizons, they can be off by as much as 3 arc minutes on prime night (Jan. 18th). Although the rock is very bright and should be picked up as an interloper in large binoculars, it may behoove one to run the position ephemeris using osculating elements just prior to hunting it down. YMMV.

[bigmasterdrago]

Without using osculating elements, 1994 PC1 is plotted about 2.5' out of position compared with observations last night from several stations in SE Texas. Not a biggie for this bright rock, but if your skies are marginal, make sure to use a fresh set of osculating elements. Not the default elements from the MPCORB. Last night, I had trouble centering the initial FOV due to my south sky having a good bit of light pollution from Conroe and Houston. Once the field was located, I had no issues following the big rock.

Tonight I plan on doing mag estimates since it passes thru a large field of similar magnitude stars.

[PMSchu]

Hi BMD,

How closely is it following the original prediction? I downloaded the MPC's 'NEAs at Today Epoch' elements this morning, but haven't compared the positions to those that were computed at the start of this thread. Do the elements from MPC agree with what you're getting from HORIZONS?

This NEO should remain brighter than mag 15 until Jan 25 when it will be in northern Cygnus. It will slow quite a bit though. Only ~3'/min. There are several more big ones coming next month.

Phil S.

[bigmasterdrago]

The positions varied only very slightly (arc seconds) using the standard MPC elements (MPCORB), then and now. The 'NEAs at Today Epoch' elements show much improved positions. Very similar to those produced at Horizons.

Last night an image was taken using a 5" refractor beginning at 20:27 until 21:01 from near Klein, Texas. The exposures were 45secs open, 30 secs closed. East up, north right.

   

We are completely clouded out tonight in SE Texas. w Texas had clouds last night.