The month started off with Apollo 2006 RZ (mentioned last month) passing close by the Earth on Oct 6/7. It was tracked on the 6th until about 20:15UT, moving at 86"/min at 15th mag. those positions being the last reported of the object. However, it was picked up again 4.5 hours later, through a gap in the trees, just 10 degrees above the north horizon, moving very obviously between frames. By then it was at the unusually large phase angle of 119 degrees, but unfortunately there were too few comparison stars visible in the images to measure positions.
A number of good nights during October were used to go for some very faint NEOs, an increasing number of which are being put on the NEOCP, mainly by the Catalina and Spacewatch surveys. However, there were also a proportion of bright and often fast moving objects discovered, including 2006 TA8, discovered by LINEAR at high northern declinations on Oct 12 and followed as a 16th mag object on Oct 13, 17 & 22 from Great Shefford, after which it disappeared south in the morning sky.
Showing posts with label 2006 RZ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2006 RZ. Show all posts
Monday, 6 November 2006
Thursday, 5 October 2006
2006 September notes: 2006 RZ, 2006 SU49 and 2006 SO198
Generally poor weather continued here during September, still, some work was done on 14 nights, but again few long runs on any particular object could be done.
2006 RZ is a relatively rare amateur NEO discovery, having been picked up at 18th mag by H. Michels from Herrenberg on Sep 4th. It was followed from early September through to the end of the month, passing about 5 lunar distances away in the first week of October having brightened to mag 14.
Some other interesting objects were followed, 2006 SU49 being posted as an impact risk at Torino scale 1 for a number of days before being removed after being found on old NEAT and Sloan archive images going back 5 years.
2006 SO198 was discovered by LONEOS on Sep 29 and was confirmed from Great Shefford while on the NEOCP. It was at the 'fast' end of it's uncertainty area, mag 18 and moving at about 3"/min, about 11' away from the prediction. Less than 4 days later it was to make a pass just outside the orbit of the moon. It was last seen the day before at 16th mag moving at 30"/min, but would have been 14th mag and moving at 800"/min at closest, but it would have been only visible from S. Africa-India and was not reported.
2006 RZ is a relatively rare amateur NEO discovery, having been picked up at 18th mag by H. Michels from Herrenberg on Sep 4th. It was followed from early September through to the end of the month, passing about 5 lunar distances away in the first week of October having brightened to mag 14.
Some other interesting objects were followed, 2006 SU49 being posted as an impact risk at Torino scale 1 for a number of days before being removed after being found on old NEAT and Sloan archive images going back 5 years.
2006 SO198 was discovered by LONEOS on Sep 29 and was confirmed from Great Shefford while on the NEOCP. It was at the 'fast' end of it's uncertainty area, mag 18 and moving at about 3"/min, about 11' away from the prediction. Less than 4 days later it was to make a pass just outside the orbit of the moon. It was last seen the day before at 16th mag moving at 30"/min, but would have been 14th mag and moving at 800"/min at closest, but it would have been only visible from S. Africa-India and was not reported.
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