Great shot Patrick, Keep us posted about what you hear back from them. Thanks Rodger Fry -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Wiggins Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 4:33 AM To: utah astronomy listserve utah astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] One night stand A message was posted to the Minor Planet Mailing List (MPML) asking if anyone was going to try to recover 2003 AF23, an asteroid that was only seen in 2003. Based on orbital data from back then there was a good chance it was going to pay a return visit this month. So I said I'd give it a try but weather interfered for a few days which forced me to wait until a few nights ago when I tried and failed. Same the next night I tried. But then using new position estimates from the Minor Planet Center I tried once more Wednesday night and was delighted to nab it. However, while examining those shots I noticed something moving much more quickly off to the side of the intended target. With all of the automated searches these days the chances of someone like me making a new minor planet discovery are much poorer than when I started in the 90s. And certainly, I thought, one of the "big boys" would have nabbed something this bright by now. I dutifully measured and reported it. But rather than the usual "sorry loser, someone beat you to it...again" reply I'm so used to getting the reply read "No known minor planets, brighter than V = 20.0, were found in the 15.0-arcminute region." Bonus points: It was moving so fast it had to be near Earth = My first Near Earth Object. But, alas it was moving so fast I was having trouble keeping up with it. And then, after about 70 minutes it faded and was gone. I put the word out on MPML and others searched. But to now avail. It came by, put on a nice show and then it was gone. In minor planet speak it's what's known as an ONS (One Night Stand). I filed my discovery report anyway. That way if someone does pick it up one day I may still get discovery credit. But I'm not going to hold my breath. At any rate, here's an animation I put together of the discovery frames. Each is a 60 second exposure spaced 5 minutes apart. FOV is about 18 x 26 arc minutes. The intended target, 2003 AF23, is the object making the short dashes near the center of the field moving left to right. The new object moves from bottom right to upper right. Compare the lengths of the two trails and you'll see my ONS was really moving. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/gotaway.gif patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php