January Highlights: 2012 K5 LINEAR, 2012 F6 Lemmon, 262P

Comet C/2012 K5 has been a very fine comet, and will continue to be very nice for most of January as it fades. Image taken with iTelescope T5, stack of 5 x120 second images, click to embiggen.

Last Quarter Moon is 5 January, New Moon is 12 January, First Quarter is 20 January and Full Moon 27 January.

There are several bright (ie > magnitude 12) comets in the sky at the moment, but many are in unfavorable positions. 2011 L4 PANSTARSS is brightening but below the lowest level of travel of the iTelescopes for example.

Comet C/2012 K5 LINEAR was a delightful Christmas comet, hooting across the sky at quite a clip. The comet is now fading, but is visible from both the southern and northern iTelescopes.

Comet C/2012 K5 LINEAR as seen at evening astronomical twilight from Mayhill New Mexico from 9 January. The small rectangle is the field of view of the T5 instrument, the large rectangle is the field of view of the T20 instrument (click to embiggen).

Currently magnitude 9, by the end of the month it will have faded to around magnitude 11 or less.

Despite being in a very interesting part of the sky, 2012 K5 LINEAR has very few encounters. On 10 and 11 January it is within T14 range of NGC 1662, a magnitude 6.4 open cluster, and on January 27 it is close to NGC 1516 a galaxy of magnitude 12.6.

 Comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon as seen from SSO Australia at morning astronomical twilight from 16 January. The small rectangle is the field of view of the T9 instrument, the medium rectangle the FOV of the T30 instrument  and the large rectangle is the field of view of the T14 instrument (click to embiggen).

Comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon is quite bright at magnitude 8 and will brighten over the remaining month to around Magnitude 6.5. It is now readily visible n the SSO iTelescopes.

Comet C/2012 F6 is well placed for imaging from around 1 am, being best around astronomical twilight in the morning. It is in a rich area of the sky, and has many good encounters.

On the 16th it is close to NGC 4230 an open cluster of magnitude 9, on the 18th it is close to NGC 4337 an open cluster of mag 8.9. On the 19th it is close to NGC 4439 an open cluster mag 8.4, on the 20th it is close to the open clusters NGC 4755 (4.2) and NGC 4349(7.4). On the 21st it's yet another open cluster, NGC 4609 (6.9). On the 22nd two more open clusters are nearby, NGC 4463 (7.2) and NGC 4815 (8.6).

Then there is a change of pace, on the 26th the comet is close to the globular cluster NGC 4833 (7.4) and on the 27th the globular NGC 4372 (7.8).

Comet 262P as seen from Mayhill New Mexico at evening Astronomical twilight from 16 January on. The small rectangle is the field of view of the T5 instrument, the large rectangle is the field of view of the T20 instrument (click to embiggen).

262P McNaught-Russell is on the edge of being reasonably bright at magnitude 12.It can be imaged reasonably high above the horizon just after astronomical twilight in the evening.

On January 16 and 17 it is within T20 distance of the galaxies NGC 584, NGC 596 and NGC 600 (magnitudes 10.4, 10.9 and 12.4). On the 18th it's galaxy NGC 636 (mag 11.3) and on the 25th its galaxy NGC 788 (12.3) followed by galaxy IC 207 (12.8).

That should keep you all busy for a while. Aside from Apophis no interesting asteroid encounters this month. I'll do an interesting object for the SSO in a spearate post.

ALERT! Asteroid (99942) Apophis 9 January.

Track of Asteroid Apophis as seen from Mayhill NM at 2:30 pm local time from 5 January on (click to embiggen).

Asteroid (99942) Apophis is the very paragon of the "killer asteroid". Despite close approaches in 2029 and 2036, the probability that this rock will hit us is extremely remote (1 in 250,000 for the 2036 return, not at all for the 2029 approach).

While the signature approach of Apophis is in 2029 (when it will be visible to the unaided eye at around magnitude 3), on January 9 at 14:09 UT when it is 0.0968 AU away.

While not spectacular, at magnitude 16 it is well within the capabilities of the iTelecope instruments, and moving slowly enough that long exposures won't smear too much (and tracking will work).

Chart showing the location of Apophis from the 9th to the 10th of January. The tick marks are every 6 hours, the large rectangle is the field of view of T05, the small that of T09 (click to embigen). Transit time for the SSO scopes is 2:18 AEDST.

The asteroid is best observed with the SSO instruments, the asteroid is close the the lower travel limit of the northern hemisphere scopes (31 degrees at transit at around 2:00 am at Mayhill).

While the asteroid is closest on the 9th, it is brightest (barely) on the 10th and 11th. It's not really close to anything interesting, but it will be interesting to image for historicity and notoriety at least.

See the MPC for the latest ephemeris. The MPC one-line ephemeris is
99942   19.2   0.15 K129U  12.69042  126.41885  204.42750    3.33199  0.1910618  1.11272006   0.9223139  0 MPO248017  1593   2 2004-2012 0.39 M-v 3Eh MPC        0000          (99942) Apophis    20121218

AAVSO Alert Notice 474: Multiwavelength Campaign on delta Ori (Mintaka)

AAVSO Alert Notice 474

Multiwavelength Campaign on delta Ori (Mintaka)

December 14, 2012

An international team of astronomers, including Drs. Tony Moffat

(University of Montreal), Michael Corcoran (NASA GSFC), and Noel

Richardson (University of Montreal), has requested AAVSO

photometry and spectroscopy of delta Ori (Mintaka) in support of

their multiwavelength campaign on this hot binary star in Orion's

Belt. Satellite observations will include x-ray via NASA's Chandra

and precision optical photometry via Canada's MOST.

***Chandra and MOST observations will be carried out

2012 DECEMBER 17 through 2013 JANUARY 7

so coverage is critical throughout this period, and is also needed

before and after this period.***

The astronomers write: "...we make a plea to the astronomical

community to obtain simultaneous complementary ground-based

optical observations of the key bright hot binary star delta

Orionis (Mintaka, one of the belt stars) in the period between

mid December 2012 and early January 2013. Both multi-band

photometry and especially spectroscopy would be most welcome."

They write further: "Massive O-type stars, though rare, are a

primary driver behind the chemical, ionization and pressure

evolution of the interstellar medium. Evolution of these stars

from main sequence to supernova is driven significantly by

stellar-wind mass loss. Understanding this important connection

in individual stars requires a good understanding of the physical

stellar parameters...combined with detailed understanding of the

outflowing wind... Because massive stars are rare, and massive

binaries rarer still...dynamical determinations of stellar

parameters are only known for a few systems. Our uncertainties

regarding mass loss are even worse... Important questions...have

not yet been answered." For a more complete description of this

campaign, please see the file Mintaka.pdf on the AAVSO Alert

Notice 474 webpage (www.aavso.org/aavso-alert-notice-474).

Del Ori (Mintaka, 2.41V, (B-V) -0.40) is the belt star closest

to gam Ori (Bellatrix) and bet Ori (Rigel). The del Ori system

contains multiple stars and visually is a double star, so be

careful not to include the fainter star when making observations.

Photometry: At second magnitude (visual), del Ori is ideally suited

to multicolor and near-infrared photoelectric photometry and DSLR

photometry, and is a candidate for successful CCD photometry. The

extremely small range of this system (2.20-2.32 V) makes visual

detection of the brightness changes very difficult.

BVRIJH photometry is requested, ideally 100 data points per night

obtained from an average of three measurements per data point. Be

sure to include the standard deviation for each set of three

measurements (i.e., each data point). Magnitudes should be measured

to 0.001, and the JD reported to four places.

Gam Ori (Bellatrix, 1.64V, (B-V) -0.22) should be used as the

comparison star.

Spectroscopy: Spectroscopy is strongly encouraged. Observers are

requested to use S/N >= 200, R >=10000, integration < 30 min, and

range 4000-7000 Ã…. Observations of Hydrogen alpha (6563 Ã…) and

Helium I (6678 Ã…) are also requested.

Coordinates for del Ori: RA 05 32 00.40 Dec -00:17:56.7 (2000.0)

Charts for del Ori may be created using the AAVSO Variable Star

Plotter (www.aavso.org/vsp). Best results will be obtained by

specifying an 'A' scale chart and including no other variables on

the chart. Photometrists should use the table accompanying this

chart.

Please use the name "DEL ORI" when reporting observations and

submit photometric observations to the AAVSO International

Database. Spectroscopy should be submitted directly to Dr. Noel

Richardson at <richardson@astro.umontreal.ca>.

This AAVSO Alert Notice was compiled by Elizabeth O. Waagen.

ALERT! Close Approach of Near Earth Asteroid 2012XM16, 15-16 December

Track of 2012XM16 as seen in the T5 instrument of Mayhill at 00:25 am on 16 December. The rectangel is the field of view of T5, the ticks are at 5 minute intervals.

Three near Earth Astroids are zipping past us on the 15th, but two never make it above the horizon (or magnitude 20).

2012 XM16 is different, visible from the 15th, it is highest on the morning of the 16th and closest at 20:41 UT on the 16th (but not observable from Mayhill at this time). It is magnitude 17.4 on the morning of the 16th, but rapidly fades thereafter.

The asteroid is moving too fast for the automatic guiding systems to track it. 

Choose a star not far from where the asteroid would be (based on a topocentric ephemeris, as there is significant paralax), and set that as the target, then wait for the asteroid to zoom by.

Remember that it can take up to 5 minutes for the telescopes to slew to the imaging position, so you have to allow for this in your timing.

Up to date orbital information from the MPEC ephemeris generator is best, if you enter the observatory code for Mayhill - H06,  into the box in the ephemeris generator, and make sure the Epoch is set to December 15-16, 2012 and it will create a topocentric ephemeris for Mayhill.