2004 CQ (small Amor making close approach to Earth)
Estimated at only 35-75 metres in diameter, 2004 CQ was discovered by
the Catalina Sky Survey just before 7am UT on 10th Feb 2004 moving
swiftly South-East and followed up at Powell Observatory, Crni Vrh,
Observatori Astronomic de Consell, Observatorio Astronomico de Mallorca
and at Great Shefford. The object was announced on
MPEC 2004-C39 less than 19 hours after the first image obtained at
Catalina.
Conditions at Great Shefford were quite poor, with a general layer of
thin high cloud and the moon 4 days past full causing a lot of background
illumination. To get a strong image, a total of sixty-six 14 second
exposures were taken, but stacked to provide just two images for
measurement.
The asteroid reaches perihelion just outside the Earth's orbit on 15
Feb 2004 and was 0.044 AU (about 17 lunar distances) from the Earth at
discovery. It stays within 0.1 AU of Earth for a month.
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