Thanks Phil, the session was dominated by thin, low clouds with the occasional sucker hole that I was able to take advantage of. The clouds gradually thickened and made imaging impossible, so I could not make an attempt to record NEO 2021 RW9 which transited around 3:00am the next morning.
The Paramount MX+ and control software is an enclosed ecosystem, where the mount models the sky and can then make on the fly adjustments for several variables, to allow for long focal length unguided imaging and set tracking at a custom rate for imported objects.
But when the software plots the object in the wrong place, then you miss it! In this case, the real 2025 SS5 was some 1 degree off at a PA of 269 degrees.
This has happened previously with these close approaches, where SkyTools plots the NEO accurately whereas the mount SW misses the mark.
I wonder if the mount SW is using geocentric coordinates rather than the site-specific Lat and Long?
Here is a single frame taker later, cropped 1920x1200 around the trail of NEO 2025 SS5 through a sucker hole at 2025-09-28T11:09:56. Imaging through the thin, low cloud made this fainter than I had expected.
This was 9:09:56 PM AEST.
Dennis.
The Paramount MX+ and control software is an enclosed ecosystem, where the mount models the sky and can then make on the fly adjustments for several variables, to allow for long focal length unguided imaging and set tracking at a custom rate for imported objects.
But when the software plots the object in the wrong place, then you miss it! In this case, the real 2025 SS5 was some 1 degree off at a PA of 269 degrees.
This has happened previously with these close approaches, where SkyTools plots the NEO accurately whereas the mount SW misses the mark.
I wonder if the mount SW is using geocentric coordinates rather than the site-specific Lat and Long?
Here is a single frame taker later, cropped 1920x1200 around the trail of NEO 2025 SS5 through a sucker hole at 2025-09-28T11:09:56. Imaging through the thin, low cloud made this fainter than I had expected.
This was 9:09:56 PM AEST.
Dennis.