Hi Greg,

I have some images of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) taken with iTelescopes T14 & T19 on 2023 Jan 27. These are .fits images ~40MB each. How can I compress them to fit on the Forum? I tried using Astro Pixel Processor to convert the images to .jpg format but the image is dark. The stretched image looks terrible.

They're uploaded below.

Phil S.

ST4v predicts that the NEO 2010 LK34 will make a close approach on 2023 Feb 4 0600 EST. The CNEOS & MPC websites don't have this event listed, but the CNEOS Orbit Viewer indicates a close approach within 0.027 AU on Feb 4 as does the astro.vanbuitenen.nl/neos website. Here's the ST4v Object Info dialog with additional information: [attachment=2645]

Good hunting,

Phil S.

CNEOS predicts that the newly discovered NEO 2023 BN6 will make a close approach on 2023-Feb-04 08:30 ± 00:30 UT at a distance of 0.00514AU. H=25.2 magnitude, V relative=7.50 km/sec, 'Rarity' =1, Condition Code = 7.  This MP was discovered at ATLAS South Africa, Sutherland on 2023-01-26.

Using MPC's elements for January 30 2023 00:00 UT, ST4v predicts that this MP will reach a peak brightness of 14.0 magnitude on February 3 at 1000 EST when the NEO will be moving through Cancer at 86.5"/sec at 906.1k km distance, but in daylight & below the horizon in Columbus, Ohio. Close approach (to the nearest hour) is predicted to occur on February 4 at 0400 EST (0900 UT) when 2023 BN6 at 15.0 magnitude will be moving through Ursa Major at 115.8"/sec, 774.8k km distant. This NEO will be brighter than 15 Mag Feb 3@0100 to Feb 4@0400 EST. The Minimum Re time should get better determined in the next few days as more observations are obtained.

Here's an Interactive Atlas chart showing the predicted position of 2023 BN6 on November 17-18 as seen from Columbus, Ohio: [attachment=2644]

Since this NEO will get very close, parallax will affect the predicted positions, so you'll need to make charts for your location to get accurate positions for this object.

Good hunting.

Phil S.

Xmas is coming in the form of version 4.1 later this year. If you guys could have one wish with SkyTools to make this process of observing close approachers easier, what would it be?

Better yet, no need to get caught up in a specific feature request, but rather identify something in the process that is clunky, time consuming, or frustrating, and let me figure out how to make it better.

To demonstrate I actually do read the Help occasionally, the IA help states "Depress the Eyepiece View button to open the Eyepiece Viewer. Press again to hide it. Once opened the first time, a circle will appear on the atlas that represents the field of view seen in the eyepiece (as defined on the viewer)."

Can the circle referenced above (that appears in the IA) be deleted?

Cheers
Bob

In light of the recent close encounter with 2023 BU, together with the fact I haven't done much with asteroids in ST at all, is there a tutorial or explanation here in the forum that someone can point me to regarding how to handle NEOs? Specifically, is there a correct way to regularly update the elements of a NEO to ensure you have the latest relevant data?

Thanks
Bob

In light of the recent close encounter with 2023 BU, together with the fact I haven't done much with asteroids in ST at all, is there a tutorial or explanation here in the forum that someone can point me to regarding how to handle NEOs? Specifically, is there a correct way to regularly update the elements of a NEO to ensure you have the latest relevant data?

Thanks
Bob

I see this morning that iTelescope has made the telescopes that were formerly hosted at New Mexico Skies available at the new site. It is nothing short of extraordinary that they could remove 8 telescopes, clean and upgrade them, and then re-install, align the mounts precisely, and make calibrations so quickly. I can only imagine that they hurried because of the comet.

I very much wish iTelescope to prove me wrong in my prediction that these telescopes will be a mess for some time to come. I don't have time to try them all right now, so if anyone uses them, please let me know how it goes. I will be releasing revised imaging systems in a week or so, and after that I'll have to spend some time with each one to get some better calibrations and to ensure that all of the equipment is up to date.

In the meantime, you can create a new location in SkyTools for the Utah observatory and assign that to each of the systems that have been moved.

A Pan-STARR 2 discovery with 61 observations over 6 days will make a close pass on Jan 25, 19:36UT at a distance of 0.599182LD (0.001540AU). The magnitude is estimated to be 14.2 with motion ~13'/min with excellent phase angle.. However, from my location in SE Texas, it may be too faint when high in the early morning hours of the 25th. You southern boys may have a look.

Hello fellow iTelescope users:

Without, as far as I can tell, any prior notification to its customers, iTelescope has abruptly decided to move all of the telescopes that were hosted at New Mexico Skies to a new location in Utah. I am not going to sugar coat it, even though I should probably do so. As a long-time iTelescope customer, I am very unhappy with their lack of transparency. This is not how I would choose to do business. We deserved to be informed about this before the telescopes were abruptly taken off line, much less still being in the dark weeks later.

I don't expect these telescopes to be back online for a very long time, but when they do come back, I'll recalibrate them as necessary. The level of support provided by New Mexico Skies for these older, tricky to maintain, systems has been consistently very good. All we can do is hope that the new site can provide the same level of support. 

Yes, I know I have been dragging my feet with some of the new telescopes in Chile. I need to take images and do some work to get them set up correctly. To be honest, I was so frustrated with how poorly these telescopes worked late last spring, as well as the lack of connectivity, that I gave up on them. But I am told that I should try again, and I will stop stalling and get new calibrations out soon.