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Asteroid Gallery |
2003 NZ6 (A personal account of a brief encounter with an
Aten)
|
Follow-up observations
|
| Even though the NEO was travelling quite fast after discovery it was
also relatively bright around mag +16 to +17, important for accurate astrometric
reduction.
The astrometry reported from all observatories was
of very high quality, the final MPC orbit using 132 positions has a mean
residual of just 0".39.
Observations were reported
during the apparition on the following days from the observatories listed:
|
| |
IAU Observatory code |
Total
positions
|
Comment
|
| 2003 |
118 |
151 |
176 |
636 |
649 |
704 |
966 |
A50 |
J95 |
| July 09 |
|
|
|
|
|
5 |
1 |
|
8 |
14
|
Discovery & confirmation
|
| July 10 |
10 |
10 |
|
|
|
14 |
3 |
|
6 |
43 |
|
| July
11 |
|
|
|
|
4 |
|
|
12 |
4 |
20 |
|
| July
12 |
|
|
5 |
|
|
|
|
10 |
|
15 |
Passes N of +68° dec |
| July
13 |
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
|
| July
14 |
|
8 |
|
4 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
18 |
|
| July 15 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
|
| July
16 |
|
|
|
|
6 |
|
|
|
|
6 |
|
| July 17 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
Closest to Earth 23:27UT |
| July
18 |
|
|
|
|
9 |
|
|
|
3 |
12 |
Passes S of +68° dec |
| July
19 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
1 |
|
| July
20 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
2 |
|
|
Total positions reported: |
134 |
|
|
|
Because of problems with the CCD camera fouling the fork mount of the
telescope at high declinations, 2003 NZ6 could not be followed at Great
Shefford higher than +68° dec.
This meant that the last possible night of observation before its
close approach was July 11/12th, but there was also the possibility of
catching it after close approach as it sank down to the northern
horizon. The night of July 18/19th would be the first chance, with the
object at mag +18.8V and the
next night would probably be the last, with the object only about 20°
above the horizon, at an elongation from the Sun of just 39° and at a predicted mag of +19.7V and moving at
18"/minute it would be a difficult target.
|
Both the night of the 18th and the night of the 19th were generally
clear at Great Shefford but with some drifting cloud. 2003 NZ6 was
recorded without problem on the 18th, the image below being a 10 x 8 second
stack and recording
it well enough to be measured. Note that several frames had to be left
out due to drifting cloud:
 |
The following night it was more of a problem, a run of 53 x 10 second
exposures was made, but with cloud spoiling some of the images and the
asteroid passing very close to the brightest star in the field only 39 of the images could actually be used to identify the asteroid. the
resulting image shows the asteroid faintly recorded:
 |
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