Planning to make a go at photographing asteroid 2008 QE2 as it passes the Earth. Before I can do that a little planning is in order. Minor questions… Is it above the horizon near close approach, in my nighttime sky? It turns out this object will be available for observation.
The table below is a precision ephemeris generated by the NASA HORIZONS web interface for Mauna Kea on the island of Hawai’i. Listed are celestial coordinates, time, local elevation and azimuth, magnitude and distance. The marks after the time column indicate daylight (*), twilight (A) and moonlight (M).
From the data it is clear that the evening of May 30th (May 31st UT) allows observation from Hawai’i, at an elevation of ~46° a few hours after dark. Nicely placed and nicely timed for observation. Close approach is actually the next day, but the difference is minor. The next evening allows a second chance at the observation while the asteroid is still close.
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Date Time(UT) RA Dec Az El Mag Dist(AU) 2013-May-30 00:00 * 13 43 52.20 -28 33 56.2 112.3 -29.8 11.21 0.04085 2013-May-30 02:00 * 13 46 41.34 -28 16 36.7 118.4 -4.7 11.18 0.04069 2013-May-30 04:00 * 13 49 26.76 -27 58 53.8 130.2 18.3 11.16 0.04054 2013-May-30 06:00 A 13 52 09.08 -27 40 36.2 151.4 36.2 11.14 0.04040 2013-May-30 08:00 13 54 49.78 -27 21 36.2 184.3 42.6 11.12 0.04027 2013-May-30 10:00 m 13 57 30.80 -27 01 52.3 215.4 33.2 11.10 0.04016 2013-May-30 12:00 m 14 00 14.01 -26 41 29.3 234.5 13.6 11.08 0.04006 2013-May-30 14:00 m 14 03 00.70 -26 20 37.2 245.4 -10.2 11.06 0.03998 2013-May-30 16:00 *m 14 05 51.26 -25 59 28.2 251.6 -35.9 11.04 0.03989 2013-May-30 18:00 *m 14 08 45.07 -25 38 14.0 252.2 -62.2 11.02 0.03981 2013-May-30 20:00 *m 14 11 40.61 -25 17 03.0 180.9 -84.4 11.00 0.03973 2013-May-30 22:00 * 14 14 35.91 -24 55 57.7 106.2 -62.5 10.98 0.03965 2013-May-31 00:00 * 14 17 28.96 -24 34 55.0 106.6 -35.9 10.96 0.03956 2013-May-31 02:00 * 14 20 18.30 -24 13 47.1 112.4 -9.7 10.94 0.03948 2013-May-31 04:00 * 14 23 03.30 -23 52 23.2 122.8 14.9 10.92 0.03940 2013-May-31 06:00 A 14 25 44.36 -23 30 33.2 141.7 35.8 10.90 0.03933 <strong>2013-May-31 08:00 14 28 22.79 -23 08 10.0 174.9 46.8 10.89 0.03928</strong> <strong>2013-May-31 10:00 14 31 00.46 -22 45 11.5 211.6 40.5 10.87 0.03924</strong> 2013-May-31 12:00 m 14 33 39.26 -22 21 41.4 234.6 21.6 10.86 0.03922 2013-May-31 14:00 m 14 36 20.68 -21 57 48.0 247.4 -2.4 10.84 0.03921 2013-May-31 16:00 *m 14 39 05.32 -21 33 42.1 255.5 -28.6 10.83 0.03921 2013-May-31 18:00 *m 14 41 52.80 -21 09 34.6 261.1 -55.6 10.81 0.03921 2013-May-31 20:00 *m 14 44 41.82 -20 45 33.3 260.5 -83.0 10.80 0.03921 2013-May-31 22:00 *m 14 47 30.51 -20 21 41.7 95.4 -69.3 10.78 0.03921 2013-Jun-01 00:00 * 14 50 16.87 -19 57 58.3 99.5 -41.8 10.77 0.03921 2013-Jun-01 02:00 * 14 52 59.31 -19 34 17.3 105.9 -14.8 10.75 0.03920 2013-Jun-01 04:00 * 14 55 37.04 -19 10 30.4 115.3 11.2 10.74 0.03920 2013-Jun-01 06:00 A 14 58 10.22 -18 46 29.3 131.8 34.7 10.73 0.03921 <strong>2013-Jun-01 08:00 15 00 39.97 -18 22 08.0 163.7 50.2 10.72 0.03924</strong> <strong>2013-Jun-01 10:00 15 03 08.03 -17 57 24.4 206.9 47.9 10.71 0.03928</strong> 2013-Jun-01 12:00 m 15 05 36.32 -17 32 20.9 234.7 29.7 10.70 0.03934 2013-Jun-01 14:00 m 15 08 06.41 -17 07 04.2 249.5 5.3 10.69 0.03941 2013-Jun-01 16:00 *m 15 10 39.11 -16 41 42.7 259.1 -21.1 10.69 0.03949 2013-Jun-01 18:00 *m 15 13 14.27 -16 16 25.3 267.5 -48.5 10.68 0.03957 2013-Jun-01 20:00 *m 15 15 50.83 -15 51 18.8 283.9 -75.9 10.67 0.03966 2013-Jun-01 22:00 *m 15 18 27.08 -15 26 26.5 75.8 -74.8 10.67 0.03974 |
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