Thanks for posting that Kurt. I just checked the MPC's Minor Planet & Comet Ephemeris Service at http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html and saw 2003 UV11 will be well placed for viewing/imaging every night through closest approach. Now if the weather will just cooperate. patrick On 25 Oct 2010, at 14:09, Canopus56 wrote:
From the BAA bulletin:
Subject: [BAA 00523] Close pass of bright near-Earth asteroid, 2003 From: Date: Mon, October 25, 2010 6:15 am Priority: Normal ====================================================================== BAA electronic bulletin No. 00523 http://www.britastro.org/ ======================================================================
2003 UV11, a relatively large near-Earth asteroid measuring roughly 400-500 meters across, is currently making a close approach over the next few days.
In so doing it will become one of the brightest such objects for several years attaining a V magnitude of about 11.9 on October 29 and passing closest to the Earth at a range of 5.0 lunar-distances on 2010 October 30 at 04:14 UT.
Although we know the orbit of this object with high accuracy and details of this close approach have been listed in the BAA Handbook for 2010 (p.55), we do not know a great deal about its physical nature including its rotation period. The close pass therefore represents an excellent opportunity for observers to obtain images suitable for photometry. From the UK, the most favourable observing times (UT) will be the nights of Oct 26/27 (20h-03h), Oct 27/28 (20h-03h), and in particular the two nights of Thursday, Oct 28/29 (19h-02h) and Friday, Oct 29/30 (18h-0h) when it will reach magnitude 12 and be moving at 50-60 arcsec/min and 130-160 arcsec/min respectively. Visual observation through a telescope on the last night should also prove very rewarding as it will then be possible to see it moving in real-time - a rare opportunity for such a bright target!
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- Kurt