Will it be possible to add a feature to "multi-select" items in the Designation Search Tool?

   

A very close approach of two bright asteroids begins in several hours. Although not visible from North America, others will have better luck. Namely, South America, UK and Europe. Best at 00:00 UT, asteroids 240 Vanadis and 233 Asterope may be seen to nearly merge.

Tom Polakis has been imaging these 12th and 13th magnitude rocks for several nights. https://pbase.com/polakis/image/172595509

From my location the minimum separation of these two rocks would be 4.3 arc seconds at 6:04UT on the 13th. But 30+° below my SW horizon.

There will be a total lunar eclipse on the evening of May 15 to the morning of May 16 visible from here in central Ohio. It looks to be a pretty deep eclipse, so the moon may get quite red. First contact is 22:29 EDT with the moon in the SE in Libra at 18° altitude.

Clear skies,

Phil S.

The NEO 2016 WM1 may make a close approach on the night of May 15-16. According to the CNEOS website the time of close approach is May 11 23:25 ±4 days 11:26 hours so who knows. CNEOS used elements of epoch 2016 Nov 22. The elements I used for the SkyTools predictions were downloaded from MPC's NEAs at Today's Epoch for 2022 May 11. I don't know if this NEO has been reacquired again or not. Hopefully, it will be spotted before it makes its next pass. Every day later that the pass occurs decreases the separation between earth & the NEO & a 4-day delay would really close the gap as the ST4v calculations indicate.

Here's the output of ST4v's ephemeris calculations near Columbus, Ohio for this object: [attachment=2378]

I don't know how the MPC converts the 2022 Jan 21 standard epoch for NEOs to the epoch for today's date. I suppose I should investigate that further. If MPC's elements are a better representation of the current orbit than those used by CNEOS, then the ST4v predictions indicate a close approach is coming. 

Unfortunately, the moon will interfere. Greg may get a chance to observe this one at Mesa Redonda though.

Good hunting,

Phil S.

The NEO 2012 UX68 is predicted to make a close approach on 2022 May 15 ±22:16. According to the CNEOS website the close approach distance is 0.00704 AU. Using ST4v the predicted peak brightness of 16.0 magnitude occurs on May 16@1000 EDT when it will be in Octans. The predicted motion is 81.3"/min at that time. This is a southern hemisphere object.

The timing on the pass is pretty wide, ±22 hours, so I don't know if this object has been reacquired on this pass or not. Using elements from the MPC for 2022 May 10 0000, ST4v currently places this NEO in Aries at 20.9 magnitude & 0.02 AU.

This NEO has a 'Rarity' score of 1 on the CNEOS website as do 2008 TZ3 and 2022 JP1. The NEO 2022 JO1 that passed 0.00046 AU distant today rated a 2 & peaked at predicted 14.2 magnitude.

Good hunting,

Phil S.

Hi MP Hunters,

The recently discovered NEO 2022 JO1 makes a VERY close approach on the morning of May 10. Here is the Object Info for this NEO: [attachment=2377]

CNEOS rates the Rarity of this pass as a 2. The close approach distance is 0.00047 AU. This object wasn't in MPC's NEA at Today's Epoch file this morning, I had to download the elements for this object from MPC individually.

Hopefully BMD or Technoking will see this post in time to observe this one as it flies past us. It will be much better from Texas, New Mexico or farther west.

God hunting,

Phil S.

Hi MP Hunters,

I just noticed the 'Rarity' column on the JPL's CNEOS website here:

NEO Earth Close Approaches (nasa.gov)

Here's the description of 'Rarity': 

Rarity
A measure of how infrequent the Earth close approach is for asteroids of the same size and larger: 0 means an average frequency of 100 per year, i.e., roughly every few days or less, 1 corresponds to roughly once a month, 2 to roughly once a year, 3 to roughly once a decade, etc. 'n/a' means that a frequency estimate is not available. See note for details.

This is the link from the Note:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.38...c3519/meta


It seems like we're fortunate to have several '1's & '2's in May & June.

This is a neat concept. The article describing the method lists the pass of Apophis as a 6.

Phil S.

Hi MP Hunters,

The NEO (388945) 2008 TZ3 is predicted to make a close approach in the next few days. ST4v predicts its current brightness as 16.4 magnitude at 0.06 AU in Leo, so it's a large one (160 - 490m). Predicted peak brightness is 16.2 magnitude around May 10 at 2200 EDT at 0.04 AU in Sextans. Since it isn't coming very close the brightness won't spike during the pass. The moon will interfere, unfortunately.

Another NEO, 2012 UX68 will be observable from the southern hemisphere several days later. While it's currently 0.05 AU distant, it's only 22.3 magnitude. It will brighten as it approaches. More about this one later.

Good hunting,

Phil S.

I hope someone can help.  I am trying to set the software as best as I can.  The area that seems to elude me is filters, as the filters I have are not listed, I attempted to find these filter files, and next I attempted to create one.  That ended up in about 2 hours of frustration.

What is up with filters, where can I get filter data?  The filters I have I cannot imagine are not uncommon.

For example.
Triad Ultra Quad.
My Ha OIII filter
My SI Filter

For some reason I'm not seeing SN2022hrs in my Current Novae and Supernovae nor in my Current Bright Novae and Supernovae lists. Fortunately, I know where it is so I'll be able to find it when I'm out observing. Much dimmer SNs are showing so I don't think it's my settings. Anyone else have this issue?
Fred