2021 XC6

[bigmasterdrago]

Although with nasty moon interference, 25°-35° away, we have a close pass of a possibly 15th magnitude (maybe 14.3) bus sized rock from space. Minimum pass distance (0.00138AU, .54LD, 207,352Km) occurs for me between midnight and 3am CST Dec. 16th. If it were bright enough for me, it would be interesting to watch it scream towards the horizon in Eridanus at a max speed of 10.3'/min! Passing less than one arc minute from both HIP 17107 (mag 7) and HIP 16535 (mag 9), 01:03:40 & 01:20:25 respectively. Between midnight until 2am, it covers near 11°. One more cool miss out of reach of my 13".

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It is critical to make sure you have your correct observatory set as an example for me, moving 500 miles west, to the Limpia
Observatory moves the track 10' east and a tiny bit south.

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The little rock also looks to make a 24" pass SE of HIP 15788 at ~01:42:25 from my location.

[PMSchu]

Hi BMD,

It's a fast mover. Here's the predicted path as seen from central Ohio: [attachment=2148]

As you mentioned, everyone needs to produce a chart for their own observing location due to the effects of parallax on this nearby object.

Also note that the times listed may be missing the 1st digit of the hour if the times at the tick marks are displayed with seconds precision. Things moving this fast are unusual & so the charts don't normally require times to the second.

ST4 predicts that this MP is visible in a 13" scope from a Bortle Class 5 site, but high magnification is required: [attachment=2149]

Good hunting,

Phil S.

[bigmasterdrago]

The deepest stellar I've ever reached with my refigured 13" is 15.3 from Bortle 1 skies a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. From my driveway, typically, I reach 13.5 or 14 on an exceptional night (Bortle 4). This is from many years of experience. My typical high magnification is ~25x/inch with this refigured mirror.