I managed to grab a few images showing the track of the James Webb Space Telescope in its orbit around the second Lagrange point (L2). I obtained the JWST positional data from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Horizons System at:
 
https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/app.html#/
 
"The James Webb Space Telescope is located some 1.5 million kilometres (1 million miles) away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2. What is special about this orbit is that it lets the telescope stay in line with the Earth as it moves around the Sun. This allows the satellite's large sunshield to protect the telescope from the light and heat of the Sun and Earth (and Moon)."
 
I grabbed a series of images (with some cloud interruptions) on Wed 9th Feb 2022, between 9:04pm and 9:35pm AEST, (2022-02-09T11:04 to 11:35 UT), Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
 
I used a Celestron C9.25 Edge HD with the Celestron x0.7 Reducer (1645mm fl) and the QHY268M camera. Each frame was exposed for 120 secs. I understand that it is approx. magnitude 17.9.
 
After processing the image set, I saw a trail that looked too good to be true and sure enough, it was. The obvious trail belonged to an Asteroid, Number 15520, aka 1999 XK98.
 
Oh well, back to the drawing board. I loaded the individual calibrated and aligned frames into PixInsight and used the Blink Process and sure enough, I could just make out a small clump of pixels marching across the screen in the predicted positions of the JWST as the frames advanced. Each clump was barely above the background level but became obvious when blinked.
 
I loaded the frames into PS CC and used Layer Masks to combine the trail of the LWST and also raise the brightness level of the trail, above the background, to make it more conspicuous.
 
Image details (cropped from full frame):
Center (RA, hms): 07h 28m 41.669s
Center (Dec, dms): +10° 30' 09.775"
Size: 9.84 x 7.38 arcmin
Pixel scale: 0.461 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 360 degrees E of N
2022-02-09T11:04 to 11:42 UT. (9:04pm to 9:42pm AEST)
Each frame exposed for 120 seconds.
 
Asteroid details:
Object Name: 15520 1999 XK98
Object Type: Asteroid
Magnitude: 16.85
 
Bands of clouds rolled in during the session so there are a few gaps in the trail.
 
Cheers
 
Dennis

   

   

The Apollo class MP 2022 BH7 is predicted to reach 13.9 magnitude Feb 18@0000 EST at Re 0.02 AU. The predicted motion is 90.5"/min when it will be in Gemini.  It's currently in Sextans at 18.9 magnitude moving at 46.9"/hr. ST4 predicts it will be visible from Feb 14 (15.6 mag) to 18 (14.7 mag). CNEOS lists the Condition Code as 8 with 8 days of observations (35 observations).

This looks like a good one with plenty of warning!

Good luck,

Phil S,

I know.... nobody plans out this far.....but it just jumped out at me due to the magnitude.

It's actually brightest well before it catches up and crosses inside our orbit. Being Brightest (14th mag) in the early morning hours of Feb 28 in the south up 80° moving 17"/min. The skinny moon is ~90° away.

Over the next several days, it remains bright, high and well placed as it speeds up to 30"/min. Close approach coming at 01:57CST Mar 4th at a distance of 12.77LD for me with the big rock low in the ENE. This is a big rock, possibly 3/4 mile. The uncertainty =0, so plotting should be easy.

Moon is not a factor.

It appears that the search capabilities have been expanded of ATLAS to be able to cover the entire dark sky every 24 hours.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-astero...sky-search

Appears to be in the latest MPCORB as the most recent entry with a provisional designation. So just added. This appears to be a find well after close approach if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly.

Number  Designation     Epoch          a                e             i             Node          w               MA          H    Slope   

0            2022 BZ3    2459600.5  1.8773079  0.1201187 21.76572  102.08986  318.28056  54.47922  19.87  0.15


The really odd thing is that Horizons says "No Matching Bodies Found" and a search at https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search says "Unknown Object: 2022 BZ3". At 7:30CST Jan 30. I'm assuming that those services are just not updated yet which seems strange as that rock "is" in the MPC.

Maybe if I had waited several hours, it would be there.

Also a fresh download of the MPC NEA Today does not bring it in - "No Match". I'm hesitant to get the full MPC using ST for fear of hosing the db but I did it anyway. The download, extraction, reading and epoch building process takes ~30 minutes. Yes, I know, my desktop PC is old and only has 16Gb RAM and an i5 processor ;=[

After doing that, St could find the rock.

My question is would it be better to always do a single minor planet download rather than refresh the full MPC db?

Hi MP Hunters,

In checking the CNEOS site for what's coming in February & March, I noticed the large objects (138971) 2001 CB21, (455176) 1999 VF22 & 2015 DR215 plus the small but much closer approaching (within 0.005 AU) 2018 CW2. (455176) 1999 VF22 is predicted to reach 16 magnitude around midnight Feb 19 & 20 and (138971) 2001 CB21 should be brighter than 16 magnitude from Feb 11 to Mar 4 reaching a peak brightness of 14 on Feb 28.

Unfortunately, 2015 DR215 & 2018 CW2 are duds, never predicted to be brighter than 17.8 & 18.1 mag respectively. Well within the reach of imagers, however.

Just a heads up,

Phil S.

Apparently another one detected on the way out.   Not visible from North America anyway, but a real screamer! 28"/sec at close approach of 0.00062 AU. It would have been visible from Japan: [attachment=2244]

Could have spoiled someone's day.

Phil S.

Hello,

I have written a crude program for creating an observation calendar. Sample output is attached. It takes a list of objects (rows) and indicates for a number of days (columns) time and highest altitude during the period from astronomical night to my bedtime.

Question: can one do something like this in ST4?

With best regards,  tiha

Attached Files

  EasyMessier.pdf (Size: 16.07 KB / Downloads: 16)

Fixes/Additions/Changes in Version 4.0j R10

Visual & Imaging

• The Database Power Search tool has been added to the top level Tools menu
  
• Minor Planet download source files from the MPC have been updated to download the files from https://minorplanetcenter.net/data
  
• The display of comet tails on charts has been improved to accommodate better observation data, which now includes tails for many more comets
  

• A new feature has been added to the Real Time Telescope menu that will generate the files required for the Nexus DSC to target comets and bright minor planets (see the dialog for additional information). 
  
• The Real Time Sky Tour was inheriting custom View Times from the Best Now mode. Right-click on the View Times column in Sky Tour mode to reset custom View Times for lists that may have been affected.
  
• The Sky Tour was failing to fully recalculate the tour when custom View Times were changed
  
• A crash related to printing Observing Awards has been fixed
  

• It is no longer possible to close an Imaging Project with no filters and exposure goals assigned.
  
• It is no longer possible to remove a filter from an Imaging Project that has had an observation logged using that filter
  

The MP 2022 BB has a predicted close approach on the evening of 2022 Jan 25 for North America & the morning of Jan 26 for Europe. The predicted peak brightness is 16.4 magnitude ~1800EST - twilight. Here is the predicted path as seen from the Houston, TX area: [attachment=2231]

The sky will still be too bright to observe at maximum brightness from Houston, unfortunately. Farther east the sky will be darker. At least we get a few days warning for this one & it's moving fairly fast. Today I downloaded the MPC's NEAs at Today's Epoch & MPCORB (in that order - probably should have reversed it). Back over 10^6  MPs in the database.

Good hunting,

Phil S.