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Close Approach of 2022 NR
#1
This newly discovered NEO is predicted to make a close approach on 2022 Jul 10 08:17 ±00:08 UT at a distance of 0.00257 AU, H=25.6, 'Rarity'=1. 

ST4v predicts it will be moving through Hydra at 275.1"/min at 15.8 magnitude. This is another southern hemisphere object although it may be visible from the southwestern USA. Here is an Interactive Atlas chart showing the predicted path on the evening of Jul 10 as seen from Brisbane, Australia: [attachment=2431]

Unfortunately, the moon will be rather close to the NEO (~20° for USA, ~40° for AU).

Good hunting,

Phil S.
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#2
Hi Phil

I went outside and grabbed 2022 NR tonight (Sat 9th July 2022 in Brisbane) at around mag 16.3 I think. It  was moving more slowly tonight than its close approach speed tomorrow, so it was an easier target. It races through the FOV when I plot it for nearer to the closest approach time, on Sunday 10th July for me in Brisbane.

This is a composite of 5 x 60 sec exposures at approx. 2150 mm FL tracked on the NEO. I manually stacked them in Photoshop.

Details are provided on the annotated image.

Cheers

Dennis

   

   
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#3
Hi Dennis,

Fantastic job! Were you able to determine how close 2022 NR's actual position was to the predicted position? BMD's been reporting large differences between the predictions from elements available before a close approach & the actual position during the close approach as the gravitational perturbations take effect on the NEO & alter the trajectory.

It looks like your tracking & seeing were very good - very little wiggle in the star trails. Which exposures were done first, top left or bottom right? That was still quite a lot of motion in just 5 minutes.

I'm glad that you're getting some decent weather.

How faint an NEO do you think that you can capture? I know that you imaged some faint moons a while back. 2022 KY4 will reach peak brightness of 17.3 magnitude on Jul 19 at 0000 EDT when it will be in Telescopium at 0.04 AU moving at 14.3"/min. If that's detectable, I'll provide more info later.

Phil S.
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#4
Nice work Dennis. That is quite impressive! NZ weather is not conducive to astronomy at present.
Win11 Pro, 64gb ddr4 Ram, RTX 2080 Super, i7 11700K, 3 x 1920x1080 280hz Monitors.
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#5
You folks in the southern hemisphere have been getting some really bad weather this winter. Who did you upset? The cloud gods are over active.

Phil S.
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#6
We must have annoyed someone, we took the dogs to a lake we frequent, but the water level was so high, we could not get around it. It has a couple of seats to sit and admire the lake, but you would need to hold your breath to use them today Smile
Win11 Pro, 64gb ddr4 Ram, RTX 2080 Super, i7 11700K, 3 x 1920x1080 280hz Monitors.
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#7
Thanks Phil and Ledge, I appreciate your comments. Smile 

You can put the bad weather down to my new MX+ Mount....sorry folks. Sad 

@Phil -I was set up to chase Quasars (Red Shift between 4 and 6) in Sag and later Grus from the list in ST4 (fell asleep) and when I saw your post I slewed over to 2022 NR and grabbed some opportunistic shots.

Tracking on the stars did not readily show the trail, not enough photons were registering in one spot although Tycho Tracker might pull something out?

The MX+ can track on NEO's but you have to use the SW Suite that ships with the mount, so I had to copy/paste from ST4 to the mount SW, so I'll have to dig into the FITs Headers to see what positional data I managed to record.

30 secs Tracking on the NEO did not reveal anything at the time, but 60 secs did, although I guess if I had grabbed enough 30 sec shots and teased the data out I may have got 2022 NR in that data set?

Sigh...too much data...too little time. Smile

Cheers

Dennis
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#8
Well, the skies are clear so I hauled the gear out (I set up and tear down each night) and after Polar Alignment, T-Point Runs, etc. I slewed to 2022 NR and OMG it was right there. Big Grin Big Grin

The MX+ can Track on the NEO and here is a 1600x1200 full res crop from the unprocessed 60 second exposure raw frame (0.725 arcsec/pixel) . The 'scope is outside still acquiring images as I write so I haven't had the time to annotate these uploads.

I am still learning about this mount and its capabilities and so far am very, very impressed.

Cheers

Dennis

   

   

This is a composite image of single, unprocessed, full resolution crops showing the difference in the relative speed of NEO 2022 NR as it passed close to our planet Earth on 9th and 10th June 2022.

You can see by the length of the star trails the variation in its rate of motion within a 24 hour period, as the mount tracked on the NEO thus causing the stars to trail.

Cheers

Dennis


   
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#9
Hi Dennis,

That's really great work. I suspect that you're correct that the new mount has upset the cloud gods - it's really impressive. The trailed stars are very straight, even over the series of 5 minute exposures.

I looks like the NEO was moving ~3x faster on Jul 10 than on Jul 9. Geometry makes all the difference I guess. The relative velocity wasn't that high (8.30 km.sec), but it was only 0.00257 AU distant per the CNEOS website.

Good to know that the NEO was where the MPC's elements predicted that it would be.

Ledge, I hope you can keep the water in the lake insted of letting it all run out into the ocean like the @#$%&# in California seem to be doing with their's.

Phil S.
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#10
Another awesome job Dennis, I am quite jealous of your skills Smile

Phil, the dogs would have bought most of the lake back into the car with them sigh....  It is also landlocked lol
Win11 Pro, 64gb ddr4 Ram, RTX 2080 Super, i7 11700K, 3 x 1920x1080 280hz Monitors.
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