[AZ-Observing] NY40 viewing at Lowell
- From: Brian Skiff <Brian.Skiff@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: amastro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2002 22:32:31 -0700 (MST)
We had reasonably clear weather and good Saturday night public-viewing
crowd at Lowell Observatory on Mars Hill tonight. The main telescopes
were not nimble enough to track 2002 NY40, but three of the local amateurs
(Bill Ferris, Brent Archinal, and Padraig Houlahan---"amateurs": two PhD
astronomers and one of the better-known amateurs!) had their own Newtonians
set up on our patio area and picked up the asteroid. Very easy to see
once found. It seemed to me as though the brightness was varying greatly
over the course of 20 minutes or so, but it could have been illusory due
to scattered light (Moon and necessary on-site lights). The three showed
the asteroid to dozens of people each. One difficulty was having to change
the description of the star-field moment-by-moment, and of course to find
the asteroid if someone bumped the telescope. Bill, Brent, and Padraig
had their hands full keeping up with the thing whether their telescopes
were tracking or not. Bill seemed less successful with his equatorial
mount than the others with alt-az mounts. Had lots of good discussions
with visitors about impacts, asteroid searches, the ridiculousness of
blowing up asteroids anytime soon, etc. Many people got genuinely excited
being able to see something moving in the sky real-time. having the
knowledge that this rock was at the distance of the Moon whizzing overhead.
A "public outreach" success.
\Brian
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