2012 DA14 makes its very close fly-by of Earth

2012 DA14 captured on its way out from its very close encounter with Earth.

The NEO was 8th magnitude and moving at 1,645"/minute when these images were obtained and was nine times closer than the Moon. At its closest at 19:24 UT on 15th Feb. 2013 it had come inside the geostationary satellite ring but by the time these images were taken 80 minutes later it had already passed back outside.

2012 DA14 1hour and 20 minutes after closest approach to Earth

Exposures were limited to 0.2 seconds to stop the asteroid from trailing so the images could be used to measure the object's position.

A few gaps in thickening clouds only allowed a short run of images to be captured between 20:43 - 21:00 UT,  before the sky completely clouded over.