Astronomy Cast takes a fact based journey through the cosmos as it offers listeners weekly discussions on astronomical topics ranging from planets to cosmology.
Close approach of 2002 NY40
Asteroid 2002 NY40 was discovered in the moring hours of July 14, 2002 at the Lincoln Laboratory ETS in New Mexico (LINEAR). The NEA reached its closest approach to earth on August 18, at 09:52 MESZ with a minimum distance of 0.0035238 AE. This equals to 540000 km or 1.3 times the distance to the moon. With an apparent motion of 4 arcminutes per minute the approximately 800 meter sized astoroid traveled through the constellations of Sagitta, Cygnus and Lyra in the night of August 17./18.
At that time the Guidestar Observatory was not yet existent and the Vixen VC200 and a Starlight MX916 CCD camera was set up on my home balcony. With 1-second-exposures the following sequence was recorded. Animation (3.5 MB)
Date: 18.8.2002, 00:36:36 UT - 00:40:48 UT
VC200L, f/9 mit StarlightXpress MX916, 2x2
60 x 1sec, Weinheim - 49.548 N, 8.6660 E