Had an unseeable this morning pass just 255,386Km out at possibly 15-16 mag. Was slightly below my horizon and after daylight so not even a possible witness. The discovery observations had it near opposition moving from north to south but inside lunar orbit so great phase angle. Moving quickly into southern hemisphere at 4'/m to 6'/m. A real screamer - Pegasus to Grus - 70° in 24 hours. Not a big rock at possibly 13 meters. When it was in a dark sky, too faint and moon. But cool to track anyway. Good practice.
I first read about the discovery of Quasars, these enigmatic, distant, energetic objects, as a schoolboy. I never imagined that one day, I would be able to record the stellar like presence of one through a small telescope in my back garden.
In SkyTools 4 Imaging, using the Database Power Search Tool for Extragalactic Objects, I found a list of Quasars, filtered by date and my location, with a Redshift z >4, visible in August.
The 1st entry (Q2237-0607 in Aquarius) in the list looked like a good candidate at mag 18.3 so I slewed to the location and grabbed a series of 40x30 sec images and was pleasantly surprised to find a good match.
I also found an interesting APOD that showed a “Redshift Lookup Table for our Universe” which itself linked to the original Technical Paper which can be viewed as a PDF. It is described as a “Paper-and-pencil cosmological calculator” for when you don’t have an Internet Connection.
SkyTools 4 Imaging Data (sub-set)
Q2237-0607
Quasar
R.A. 22h39m53.6s Dec.: -05°52'19" (2000) in Aquarius
Magnitude: 18.30 R
Size: stellar
Redshift (z): 4.55
Light Time: 12.0 Gyr
Apparent Data for 2021 Jul 30 GMT+10 at Brisbane, Australia:
Apparent RA: 22h41m01.1s, Apparent Dec: -05°45'33"
Or to put this another way, what's the best way to ask for help or to ask for a new feature?
This is going to seem obvious after you read it, but I get this all of the time.
Let's say that you are trying to accomplish something. You imagine how you might accomplish this thing using SkyTools, but you don't see that feature - the one you imagined. What often happens is that people ask me for their solution, without explaining what they are actually trying to accomplish. My response is inevitably going to be to turn around and ask what you are trying to accomplish. This is because there is often an existing way to do what you need to do. But if I don't know what that is, then I can't suggest it.
So here's the tip: tell me what you are trying to do, not how you want to do it. If you do that clearly, then I'll quickly be able to suggest an existing solution, and if one doesn't exist, I can start thinking about a good solution.
I just ran this small rock and although the orbit is still highly uncertain, it was interesting to look at its orbit. It appears to have came in from outside and swung well below our southern hemisphere, hence only 12 observations on the 19th. As it's magnitude caved quickly late on the 20th (21st UT) as it swept sunward and became far, far to faint to keep track of. At closest approach b4 that, it may have been 14th mag or so and moving 1/4°/min. It's minimum distance for me was ~200,000Km. Cool stuff, indeed.
Here is an image of the Dwarf Planet Quaoar (mag 18.88) taken from our back yard in Brisbane on 19th July. (90x30 sec).
Quaoar is a planetoid that lies beyond Pluto's orbit in the solar system. Quaoar was discovered on June 4th, 2002 by astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, using images that were obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory. The discovery was announced on October 7th, 2002, at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. At the time, the object was designated as 2002 LM60, but would soon be renamed by Brown and Caltech his team.
Quaoar lurks in the Kuiper Belt, a group of icy objects beyond Neptune. It is about 42 astronomical units, or Earth-sun distances, away. That's about 4 billion miles (6 billion km) — a billion kilometres more distant than Neptune. It takes about 288 years for Quaoar to go once around the sun in a roughly circular orbit.
Quaoar has only one moon, called Weywot. it orbits around Quaoar at an approximate 9000 mile distance.
Some SkyTools Data:
(50000) Quaoar
Minor Planet, Dwarf Planet
Magnitude: 18.88
Orbit Period: 288.3 years
Diameter: 590 - 1900 km
Current Status:
Earth Distance: 41.9 AU
Total motion: 2.66 "/hr PA 264.0°
I am considering purchasing SkyTools 4 to use with my Nexus II, my telescope is NOT computer controlled, its on a Losmandy G4 mount and I've been using the Nexus as a push-to with SkySafari, unfortunately SkySafari is not cooperating and I'm looking for alternatives.
Does anyone have experience using the two together and is there a detailed setup guide for computer illiterates like myself?
Does the computer need to be connected to the Nexus II by USB cable or can I connect the two via Wifi?
I would like to have the software installed on my laptop for use with the Nexus II and copy on my home machine for planning etc., Is this possible?
I am considering purchasing SkyTools4 to control my telescope equipped with a Nexus II and encoders, I have a Windows 10 laptop computer I plan on using with it.
Does SkyTools4 connect directly to the Nexus II's USB port or does it connect wirelessly?
Do you have detailed connection instructions for the Nexus II and SkyTools 4?
Can I run SkyTools 4 on my laptop for computer control in the field and a copy of SkyTools 4 on my main computer in the house for planning etc etc?
2021 NB6 looked promising. Not only its magnitude was just beyond reach. Then the ephemeris proved bad geometry with Full Moon close when it was high enough. Just cannot get a break.
This morning around 8:45CDT, I had two rocks only 10' apart in my sky unseen as due to daylight and magnitude as well as clouds. They both are close approach rocks, racing by at over 1'/minute. One being 2021 NY3 closest on 12 July 10:53CDT and the other being 2021 NM3 closest on 14 July 16:55CDT. Strange things happen.
