2003 SR84 (small Apollo making close approach to Earth)
Discovered by NEAT on 2003 Sep 20th, this small Apollo quickly
brightened and accelerated across the sky, making a close approach to
about 2.8 lunar distances of the Earth on Sep 27th. After this it swings
inside the Earth's orbit and fades rapidly as it changes from being
presented to the Earth like a 'gibbous moon' before close approach, to a
'new moon' after. By Sep 30th it has faded to 21st magnitude and placed
just 55° from the Sun.
The images above were taken to minimise the trailing of the object so
that astrometry could be done. A series of 28 short 4 second exposures
were taken and subsequently stacked, taking into account the
54"/minute motion of 2003 SR84, so that it appears as a starlike
point, but all the background stars appear as a trail of dots. Each 4
second exposure is separated from the next by a gap of 16 seconds
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