Minor planet 2000 QA24 Animation

Minor planet 2000 QA24 was imaged moving slowly on Sunday 14 2007 from Kingsland J62

QA24 was 16.7V magnitude in the constellation Aries, west of the Pleiades.
See animation:

community.tigranetworks.co.uk/blogs/Tim_...potting/image001.gif

The image was cropped from 25' X 25' FOV to 6'X4'.

This was part of a mosaic of images taken with a 0.4m telescope using an Apogee AP7p CCD camera; other minor planet positions were recorded for the IAU Minor Planet Centre. In fact the faintest MP was 19.7 magnitude. The weather conditions at the time was rather moist.

Eamonn A

Nicely done Eamon. I like watching animations of these 'little' guys. Sometimes, the more images to make the animation, the better! What were the exposure times of each? Also, if you don't mind a critical comment, the first 'plate' seems the faintest, yet has s slight wash (like light pollution) is evident. Weather conditions?

Eamonn - that's excellent. You managed 19.7 with 0.4m? :shock:

Why did you image 2000QA24? Was it on the 'wanted' list? PHA?

Must check your Obs code on NeoDys

Will we see you at Galway?

Cheers
Dave

Seannie,
The sky transparency was variable at the time, ie midnight Sunday.
"Slight wash" I think due to fog gradiant. Conditions were moist at times. I have seen this before whenever there is moist in air, although the site is very dark. Other times when conditions are good, the images are black.

Exposures were 180 seconds.

Dave,

Exercise of testing out limiting magnitude of known MPs. Also good excuse to submit them to MPC. I was surprised at the limiting magnitude in those moist conditions.

I did get acknowledgement from MPC that all junk was 'zero'. I was told that I should know the results within 48 hours from Sunday.

Did you see anything about this posted on MPC?

I'll see you in Galway

Eamonn A

As luck would have it with the weather, I managed to obtain more images again on 14/15 January. Transparency improvement from the previous night. There was a clear period of about 5 hours. I tried imaging an EKBO with the 0.4m with exposures of 180 seconds. I couldn't see it in the images. I am convinced the transparency has significant moisture, reducing magnitude threshold.

Dave, do you know why it takes so long to obtain a reponse from MPC. I sent the data in on 14 th (Monday am). They did respond to say that to give them 48 hours to respond.

I have significant condensation on the AP8p sensor. I have just sent it back to Apogee for purging and cleaning. They can refill with inert gas and re seal the chamber. This is now down time on the other telescope for 3 weeks.

Eamonn A

wow :shock:
well done eamonn that's excellent.