FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: 2002 NY40 Observation

[BillFerris@xxxxxxx]

Flagstaff, Arizona, was relatively free of moistons, tonight. Following the 
monthly meeting of the Coconino Astronomical Society, Brent Archinal, Padraig 
Houlahan and I set up scopes outside the Lowell Observatory Rotunda to share 
views with visitors to the observatory. Brian Skiff was there, too.

I started with Vega, quizzing the adults as to how they celebrated the 
bicentennial and suggesting the light they were seeing from Vega may have 
begun its journey to Earth that very night. By 8:30pm, it was dark enough to 
try for 2002 NY40. My finder charts only went to about 8th magnitude, which 
made the hop a bit of a challenge. Even more challenging was picking out the 
10th magnitude "star" that was moving.

By 8:45pm, all three CAS scopes were trained on the 'roid. That thing was 
haulin' ass across the sky. I was using an 18mm Meade SWA, which produces 63X 
across a 1 degree true field in my 10-inch Newtonian. 2002 NY40 was covering 
one degree every 8 minutes. I had to adjust the scope after each person. Even 
at that, I briefly lost the object twice during the evening. Finally, about 
9:45pm, my OTA ran into the pier and I had to move on to the Moon.

All in all, a very nice public event.

Regards,

Bill Ferris
Flagstaff


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