Yale Students Capture Asteroid On Film

netringer writes: "Two Yale University students used the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to capture a series of still images of asteroid 2002 NY40 on August 15-16, two nights before it made a close flyby of Earth. The still images were made into a cool digital movie that shows the asteroid streaking across the sky over a period of two hours. According to an AP story the students were supposed to looking at some binary stars when they decided to look a the asteroid instead."

Comments

But how?

[flewp]

How does one capture an asteroid on film? Seems like it would break right through it. I mean, afterall, it's hurtling down from space, so it's going really fast and it's really hot.

I also got some pictures!

[nEoN nOoDlE]

I also took a picture of the asteroid about to hit earth... Here it is

Re:I also got some pictures!

[cryptor3]

I'm surprised CNN didn't use that same Asteroid Impact image that they've used on almost every "near miss" asteroid story...
Like here
here
here
here
here
and even here

That has to fake

[AnimalSnf]

That's not what it looked like in Armageddon.

That was no asteroid!!

[DoctorFrog]

I played the movie several times, and there's only one conclusion. That thing was obviously accelerating and decelerating under power!

It seemed to be keeping time to "blue Suede Shoes" too, but that's probably just a coincidence. Probably...

Yeah right

[Nept]

I could do this in MS Paint and Adobe Premiere in a half an hour... what the heck. Move a white pixel across a grey background...

Hmph!

[I Love this Company!]

Making "still images" into a digital movie. Back in my day, if we wanted to see heavens, we had to use Galileo's original telescope model from 1610! And we didn't have movies; each frame had to be hand drawn and the whole stack had to be manually flipped to create motion. Kids today!

--

"All art is quite useless."

Re:Hmph!

[flewp]

And you liked it, damnit!

Re:Hmph!

[Russ Steffen]

Telescope, Schmeloscope! In my day if you wanted to see an asteriod you had look up and squint really hard. I once squinted so hard I could see the Red Spot on Jupiter and individual stars in Andromeda. But then my eyes popped.

You kids and your "telescopes" have it easy.

I could animate some gifs that look more real

[dcstimm]

I could animate some gifs that look more realistic than that movie:-) But I would add an explosion or something at the end to scare people:-) (and some space ships) Very cool though!

Finally..

[batobin]

Finally, astronomy for people such as myself with small attention spans. This is huge! It's just what the science needs to gain entire new audiences.....whoah! Something shiny!

The movie

[Tribbles]

foreach $frame (0..100) {
$image = newImage(128, 128);
$image.plotRandomStars();
$image.plot(10 + $frame, 10 + $frame);
$image.write();
}

insubordination will not be tolerated

[Anonymous Coward]

the students were supposed to looking at some binary stars when they decided to look a the asteroid instead.

Sounds rebellious and free-thinking if you ask me.. I think they should be interned lest they cause a revolution.

Kids who don't do what they're told and know how to use a telescope? Why, next they'll be using the telescope to plan the trajectory of ICBMs!

Their professors should report them under the TIPS program, especially in the event of a student holding a temporary visa, to ensure a quick, appeal-free exile.

Even better =)

[I Love this Company!]

CLS
SCREEN 13
REM ASTEROIDS ROOL~!

FOR i% = 1 TO 320 STEP 1
PSET (i%, 150)
NEXT i%

END

My video of their web server versus Slashdot...

[Scoria]

... resembles a small asteroid passing through Earth's atmosphere.

Astronomers slacking off

[Gudlyf]

"According to an AP story the students were supposed to looking at some binary stars when they decided to look a the asteroid instead."

I can see how it all transpired now...

"No guys, I said we should use the telescope to check out pieces of ass...but I guess this is cool too."