From: TerryMosel@aol.com
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2002 18:07:17 EDT
Subject: Six Items
Hi all,
1. Those of you with access to Digital Television channels may wish to know
that a programme under 'The Edge' series is being shown on Discovery Sci-Trek
(channel 555) today at midnight.
It is entitled 'Meteor Chasers' and features BAA members Steve Evans and
Andrew Elliott on their trip to USA in search of the Leonids. The programme also
includes several other GB amateur astronomers whose faces you might
recognise!
2. A reminder about the IAA Perseids / BBQ on the first clear night of Sunday
11, Monday 12 or Tuesday 13 of August, at the Big Collin picnic site: all
members have already got details by post. Hope to see you there.
3. New Comets: For those of you who didn't get the last email, new comet
C/21002 06 is now predicted to reach magnitude 5.5 in about a week, but it
will be low down in the dawn sky when at its best. It eventually becomes
circumpolar, but by then will have faded a bit. It's now moving rapidly NE
through Orion and will enter the 'feet' of Gemini on August 11, passing very
close to Castor on the night of Aug 14/15.
The Preliminary elements are:
T 2002 Sept. 9.418 TT
q 0.49467 (2000.0) P Q
Peri. 78.703 +0.418803 -0.807890
Node 330.959 -0.011376 +0.451899
e 1.0 Incl. 58.666 +0.908006 +0.378288
There's another fainter comet too, C/2002 04 Honig, about magnitude 8 to 9,
but much better placed, moving North through Cepheus.
The elements are:
T = 2002 Oct 1.9901
Ecc = 1.0
q = 0.778494 AU
Small omega = 105.7728
Capital Omega = 321.0135
Incl = 73.0668
4. Near Earth Object 2002 NY40 is due to make a VERY close pass to Earth on
17/18 August.
The orbit is still being refined, but the following elements, courtesy of
Dr Alan Fitzsimmons, should be enough to give you an idea of where it will be
in our sky each night. As Alan says, the present uncertainty in the orbit
does not justify the number of significant figures, so if you want to
simplify things, just round to about 5 decimal places!
Ecc= 0.7101336880497671
A=2.039697369613748
Omega= 146.8570251370315
Peri = 268.2800688604276
Inclination= 5.771558773389537
Date of perihelion = 2002-Oct-04.9861509 UT
H= 19.133; G= 0.150
It will be well placed for observation from Europe on the nights of August
15/16, 16/17, and especially 17/18 (mainly from 00:00 to 04:00 UT). The brightest
magnitude of 9.54 occurs around 02:00 UT on 18th when the asteroid is around
0.0045 AU distant (670,000 km, 428,000 miles). At that time, it will be
moving at about 5 degrees per hour, well placed in Cygnus & Lyra (I think!)!
Tolis Christou of Armagh Observatory has suggested an attempt to measure
its parallax when closest as an interesting and challenging project for
amateurs using telescopes with CCDs to image it simultaneously from locations
several tens of Km apart. If anyone is interested, please let me know, and
tell Tolis aac@star.arm.ac.uk what equipment (telescopic & CCD) you have
got.
5.Colin Clements in Lisburn has kindly made the following offer:
"I have a quantity of the RAS Journal 'Astronomy & Geophysics' (20)
available free-gratis to anyone who wants them. They are in mint condition
and are being disposed of only because I have no room to store them. I would
appreciate it if you could 'put the word out'; any takers can collect them
from me in Lisburn or I can bring them along to the first IAA meeting in
September. Alternatively, I will be at the Telescope day in Armagh on the
17th, and could bring them with me for collection there."
If you are interested, contact him at: cw.clem@btopenworld.com
6. Finally, don't forget that IAA / Armagh Planetarium / North Down
telescopes amazing 'Telescope Day' at the Planetarium on 17 August. More
details soon, but mark the date in your diary now!
Goog Luck & clear skies (what are they?) to all!
Terry Moseley
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