[meteorite-list] 2002NY40 Flyby

From: Bob King <lakewind_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:18 2004
Message-ID: <3D6109F8.23137.17CE554_at_localhost>

Hello Bernd,
I'm sorry you didn't get to see the asteroid. I read your preparations and
felt your excitement. I also prepared to see NY40 with my 10" reflector
and fortunately it was clear here. In my time zone (Duluth, MN) it was
traveling through western Lyra and Hercules between 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.
I've seen probably a dozen NEAs but this was by far the fastest -- even at
72x it moved slowly but continuously across the 1-degree field making and
breaking new 'double' stars. For fun I increased the power to 214x and the
asteroid's movement was rather like a slower-moving satellite or airplane
seen from far away. I kept trying to imagine how our planet looked from
NY40's perspective -- I believe Earth would have been a gorgeous marbled
crescent at the time. It's been quite a month what with the asteroid and the
big sunspot which today still looks impressive.
By the way, what charting program did you use to plot the
asteroid's path? I used Megastar and was able to spot 2002 NY40 about 5 days
before closest approach at 13th magnitude. Even then you could see motion in
3-5 minutes. Whether in our collections or through the eyepiece of a telescope
these asteroids are a source of wonder.
Wishing you and the list well!
Bob
Received on Mon 19 Aug 2002 04:08:40 PM PDT