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Asteroid Fly-By on August 18

Posted by michael on from the don't-drink-the-koolaid dept.

ke4roh writes "An asteroid will fly near the planet and be visible with binoculars from the northern hemisphere August 18, so says this article. Astronomers say it will cross the sky at 8 degrees per hour and fade out of view as it approaches the sun and hence goes through its various phases - full, gibbous, half... down to nothing. Such a show only comes about twice a century, so take a look before it disappears!" Another reader sends in a few useful links: "Here's the complete article from the folks at NASA Space Science with extra links including details on the astreroid's trajectory."

4 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. For everything else.... by cdf12345 · · Score: 5, Funny

    pair of decent binoculars: $60
    tank of gas to drive to dark location: $20
    Lawn blankets: $15

    The expression on your face as you realise some NASA mathmatican forgot to carry a one......priceless

    --
    Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
  2. photo realistic sky generator software by kbroom · · Score: 4, Informative

    Stellarium is an impressive piece of free software for Linux and Windoze that renders the sky at any given time given your coordinates.
    I bet it will make it much easier for the untrained people to find the asteroid in the sky (considering its trayectory.

    1. Re:photo realistic sky generator software by plaa · · Score: 4, Informative

      Stellarium is an impressive piece of free software for Linux and Windoze that renders the sky at any given time given your coordinates.

      As for a more general star-browsing program, XEphem is great (free for personal use, sources available). It takes a little getting used to, but is very versatile with lots of nifty features, and it allows you to load star catalogs to increase the number of objects it knows.

      Any other astronomy programs somebody would recommend?

      --

      I doubt, therefore I may be.
  3. Disc of asteroid? Will it show phases? by hyacinthus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I notice that the article doesn't say anything about whether the asteroid will show an apparent disc from Earth, but this is easy enough to calculate, I suppose--

    Diameter of asteroid: 800 m
    Perigee distance: "1.3 x distance of Moon"
    Distance of moon: 384,000,000 m approx.
    Thus, perigee distance: 500,000,000 m approx.

    Angle subtended by asteroid: 800 / 500,000,000
    = .0000016 radians approx
    = .000092 degrees approx
    = .33 seconds of arc.

    And this is only at perigee, of course.

    By comparison, the disc of Neptune subtends about 3 seconds of arc (don't remember exactly), and just shows a disc in larger amateur telescopes. I don't think anyone with a pair of binoculars is going to be able to discern phases on this asteroid.

    hyacinthus.