NEO 2007 TU 24
Jan 29 - 30th 2008
CCD image tracking on the
minor planet's motion
Taking it one step further the following image was taken with a customer's
Paramount ME. The
telescope was slewed to the minor planets position as computed by TheSky and
then the telescope's
tracking rates in RA and DEC were set to match the minor planets motion
at the start of the exposure.
Hence the trailed stars and the slight drift in DEC since the tracking rates
were not updated in real time (that is another story)! This minor planet was moving fast enough whereby in
a mere 10 seconds the minor planet showed trailing when using the sidereal
tracking rate.
More on tracking comets/minor plantes can be found here!
<--Click here.
52 - 10.5 second exposures
Animation courtesy Patrick Wiggins
The image scale is 1.49
arcseconds/pixel with North being down. The date was 1 30 2008 and start
time of sequence was 3:27:49 Universal Time. Note again even in only 10.5
seconds the minor planet has moved enough to cause trailing in the stars!
ST-9E/C-11
Paramount ME image
30 second image
Trailed stars caused by minor planet's motion
30 seconds
The telescope pointing error
in regard to the position of the minor planet is simply because there was no
data mapped in this part of TheSky. The telescope was installed in an hour
including polar alignment but not time was taken to improve the pointing
further since that would have taken away from precious imaging time ;).
The following chart displays the
Ephemeris
generated by the Minor Planet Center and an Ephemeris created by
TheSky. The
green line is TheSky's predicted path and the purple reference points are those
plotted by using the data from the
Minor Planet Center's ephemeris generator.
Several dates/times in UT have also been stamped for reference. Once can clearly
see the paths match extremely well.
TheSky Chart showing NEO 2007 TU 24 for Jan 30 - 31 2008
Time is in UT (Universal Time)
As one can see clearly the
Ephemeris from the
Minor Planet center and TheSky are in agreement.
First the Ephemeris for the
date and time in question was created using the
Minor Planet Center's ephemeris generator.
Once the ephemeris has been created the data is compiled into a
Sky Database for
plotting <-- What is an SDB?? the minor planet position's
and TheSky.
Note at the bottom of the page
you can ALSO export the minor planet orbital elements in a format compatible
with TheSky. This allows you to plot the computed minor planet position in
real time as opposed to creating an Ephemeris. Make sure you check TheSky
option as shown below.
Orbital Elements directly
compatible with TheSky
Created by the Minor Planet Center
Or even easier just use TheSky's
feature to download a minor planet "By Name". In this case the search string
must be "2007 TU24". That is the space is necessary for the name to resolve.
Then you can import the minor planet directly and plot it in real time. That is Data | Comets & Minor
Planets | Minor Planets - "By Name". See below.
When the minor planet has been found Highlight
the name with the mouse+left button click and choose OK. The minor planet can
now be found using Edit | Find and the name or Edit | Find 2007 TU24.
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