[meteorite-list] When I'm 64 ... Part1 of 2

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Mar 28 11:17:31 2005
Message-ID: <1db.38a8f5b0.2f798813_at_aol.com>

En un mensaje con fecha 03/28/2005 5:02:57 AM Mexico Standard Time, grandpa
Bernd kindly comments:

>As a result, we're going
>to get a once-in-a-millennium naked-eye asteroid show.

2029? Hola Bernd, List, No need to be handy mending a fuse when the lights
are gone (Astronomers do it more passionately in the dark), we can still
break out the valentine, birthday greetings and bottle of wine if you can't wait
until two-oh-two-nine, no need to dream of naked-eye asteroids through the
millenia of your afterlife, nor having to travel to exotic destimations for a
cloudcover in that crucial hour.... You can have a date with your regular
true naked-eye asteroid partner when Vesta comes by around 1 June 2007. BUT,
this will not be an ordinary Vesta show! Vesta will reach 5.4 magnitude within
2 months after her 200th anniversary of discovery in 1807 29 March, and will
remain naked eye visible for over a month, even at the 5.4 maximum
brightness for about a week.

The good news is Vesta is not only at her opposition with us (aligned with
Earth on one side of the Sun for maximum illumination and proximity), but she
will be at here PERIHELION, the closest she ever gets to the Sun, being over
twice as bright as other best times. And as usual, OPPOSITION means that
Vesta will be raising hereself high, high in the sky wherever you be on Earth
and time you make your date. So please don't forget your eyeballs for the
Vesta Party Bicentennary with the naked-eye celestial body of honor, which really
only will occur once in a lapse of forever!

The only bad news is there will be a full Moon at opposition, but a small
amount of flexibility ojn the part of the observer with all the observation
opportunity, will be fine to get the best naked view in town - your town.

And in the "Did you know..." category, Did you know that Asteroid (9969)
Braille is a Vestoid HED dumb-bell shaped asteroid of over 2 kilometers long
which will eventually collide with Earth, the Moon or Mars as it's orbit
possibly gets more elongated by its Jupiter oppositions? If that is too long to
wait, meteorite chasers get ready for this prediction: On or about 29 June 2010
there will be an HED meteor shower and a new HED strewn field loaded with
fresh crusted brHED. Braille will be less than a half AU from Earth at its
perihelion, well crossing within Mars' orbit, and a good telescope or CCD imager
ought to let you not be blinede by Braille, a little before Earth impact
from the Braille rubbish stream. Meanwhile, Braille goes to over 2/3 the
distance at aphelion to Jupiter in the outer portion of the Asteroid belt before
coming so, well, relatively, close.
Saludos, Doug
 
Received on Mon 28 Mar 2005 11:17:23 AM PST