[AZ-Observing] Re: [SHALLOW] 2002 NY40, the asteroid no one could stop!

Hey everyone...

My experiences were similar to Steve Dodder's.  Went out on Friday and
attempted to find the bugger, but just when I would find a hole in the
clouds big enough to find the field and wait for it, the clouds would roll
in before I could see it.  I gave up after about an hour of vain struggle.
Saturday, however, was better.  Set up just before the end of twilight, and
hunted around for the field.  I locked on and waited, and slowly watched as
the stars in the field started to dissappear.  Looked up to find a long
"stream" of clouds overhead.  Hoping that this stream would move on over, I
swung over to the moon for a bit.  I just cruised the terminator for a while
at 120x, which the seeing just barely supported.  I then decided to take a
peek at Antares.  In the past, I've been able to split this with an OIII
filter, (strange, but true) but decided to see what I could do without.  At
120x, I could just detect a small bump nearly west of the boiling spot.  I
went for the 5mm for a 240x view.  The seeing wasn't kind at all, but I can
say that I saw the companion without a doubt.  It looked like experienced
cowpoke trying to break a bucking bronco.  That little star stayed nearly
rock solid, as the "bronco" just danced around trying to shake the little
guy.
 A few minutes with this, and then I noticed a hole coming my way.  I
trained back into the next field to wait, and worked my way down the
asteriod's path until I found a pair of  stars that seemed to be getting
further apart.  A few seconds worth of staring confirmed that I had found
it.  Comparing magnitudes with my Millenium Sky Atlas showed me that NY40
was closer to 9th mag than 10th.  And Boy, was it moving!  I was using the
22mm Panoptic at 55x, and I had to reset my FOV every 3 minutes or so.  Just
long enough to plot it's course in my atlas with the time.  Clouds came and
went, but I only lost direct sight once for about 5 minutes.  I just
continued to nudge the scope every couple of minutes, and it was there when
the clouds cleared.  I tracked it for about 45 minutes total.  Amazing to
think that this celestial traveler came so close to an intimate rendevous
with our planet!  A very cool experience for my first asteriod hunt.

Thad

Thad Robosson
Double star enthusiast
Member Saguaro Astronomy Club
ATM group chairman
Owner/operator Twin Points Observatory
33 27 N, 112 19 W
Phoenix, Arizona, USA

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