(meteorobs) OT -- Asteroid 2007 TU24

[Jan Verfl]

Have once seen one such asteroid, it's a stunning sight not to miss - 10
deg/hour means 1 arcmin in 10 seconds, you will actually SEE it moving
unlike anything natural on the sky (except for the meteors, fo course:)

Let us only hope the trajectory is correct and it does not get too
"on-topic" to our forum ...

Jan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org 
> [mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of 
> meteoreye at comcast.net
> Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 7:34 PM
> To: meteorobs at meteorobs.org
> Subject: (meteorobs) OT -- Asteroid 2007 TU24
> 
> On the 29th and 30th of January, we will have an opportunity 
> to observe a rapidly moving asteroid.
> 
> 2007 TU24 will be moving over 10 degrees per hour at it's 
> most rapid, and will reach a peak magnitude of +10.2 at that 
> time. It is a fairly large (250-550 meter) asteroid, and will 
> pass about 1.4 Lunar Distances from earth (0.0037 AU; 552,540 
> km; 343,333 miles; 325 million smoots.)
> 
> Here's a rough outline of the path, as of now. The current 
> orbit is based on 104 observations from discovery on Oct 11 
> 2007 through Jaunuary 18th. The last few observations 
> included have made only minor changes to the orbit, so it 
> appears quite robust. If any substantial changes occur I'll 
> post an update. It should be brighter than 11th magnitude 
> from 0300 UT on the 29th through 1000 UT on the 30th.
> 
> 00UT Jan 29 (7PM EST Jan 28)- Triangulum-Andromeda border; 
> moving about 3 degrees per hour.
> 01UT-04 UT in Andromeda.
> 05 UT (00 Jan 29 EST, 21 Jn 28 PST) Andromeda-Perseus border 
> moving about 4 degrees per hour.
> 06-08 UT in Perseus, accelerating to 5 degrees per hour.
> Closest approach is at about 0800 UT
> 09 UT in Cassiopia
> 10UT In Camelopardalis until 1800 UT
> Peak motion and brightness in Camelopardalis about 10 degrees 
> per hour is during daylight for north america at about 1600 
> UT. It should be dark in Asia by then.
> It moves into Ursa Major around 1900 UT and travels through 
> the Great Bear's head toward beta UMA.
> For the US east coast as darkness on the 29th (00UT Jan 30) 
> falls the motion will be back down to 4 degrees per second.
> It will come very close to beta UMA (the lower corner of the 
> Big Dipper's Bowl furthest from the handle) from 0800-0900 UT 
> on the 30th.
> 
> Wayne
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