j.van.gijsen@inter.nl.net May 31, 2001
--- In guide-user@y..., Truman P Kohman <tk11+@a...> wrote:
> Excerpts from mail: 30-May-101 [guide-user] Change Star trail
overlay by
> "Larry Wood" <chukwood@t...>:
> > The orbital elements I got from the MPC site must have been a bit
> dated because
> > the Asteroid was about 5 minutes (time wise) ahead of and 20 to 30
> arc-seconds
> > to the right of its position as plotted in Guide.
> Guide Users/Observers,
> The night of May 26 started out clear, and then clouds rolled
in,
> but fortunately there were occasional breaks through which from my
back
> yard in Mount Lebanon, near Pittsburgh, I could get a good polar
> alignment on my Celestron-8 and look for asteroids. After first
> revisiting 532 Herculina, using the Guide tracking chart I had
prepared
> and posted on this month's Amateur Astronomers Association of
Pittsburgh
> Web site (http://www.3ap.org => S.I.G. => Asteroids and Comets), I
then
> I looked for the NEO 1999 KW4, ~5 degrees S of Alpha Herculis, using
> chart 1000KW4-re-e on the same Web site. At 1:30 EDT (now May 27) I
> noticed that a pair of stars I had seen several minutes earlier had
> changed their orientation, and very shortly I was able to identify
the
> fast-moving asteroid. It was not far from its predicted magnitude
of
> 10.7. I followed it for a half hour as it glided silently through a
> field of 7th- to 12th-magnitude stars. I called my wife Jane out,
and
> she too saw it moving.
> The next morning it was raining. I prepared a new chart at
Level 7
> (2 degrees) and plotted my observations on it. The actual track was
> about 1' above (NE) of the plotted track, and the asteroid was ~4
> minutes (~3') ahead of the plotted positions. I think that this is
> excellent agreement, and testimony to the accuracy of Guide.
> Truman
>
> Truman P. Kohman, Departments of Chemistry and Physics
> Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
> Phone: 412/268-8865, 412/561-8343 Fax: 412/681-0648
> Internet - ASCII messages and documents: tk11+@a...
> For images and coded attachments: tpkohman@y...