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Astrophotography

Asteroid Gault
Author Last Post
OK Thanks..

Aubrey

-----Original Message-----
From: mailer@mail2.clubexpress.com <mailer@mail2.clubexpress.com> On Behalf Of Astrophotography
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2019 4:53 PM
To: abrickhouse1@att.net
Subject: re: Asteroid Gault <<$227073132880$>>




It’s not very bright, but it’s the lone single starlike object at dead center (no trails) and the tail is pointing upward.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 28, 2019, at 4:30 PM, Astrophotography <astrophotography@centexastronomy.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks. Very interesting. But I can not see which is the comet/asteroid.
> Aubrey
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
> On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 1:21 PM, Astrophotography<astrophotography@centexastronomy.org> wrote:
>
>
> Hey guys, Question: When is a comet not a comet? Answer: When it's an asteroid
>
> Back around the first of Dec.2018 observations by the Virtual Telescope Project, which uses a 17" Plane-Wave Paramount telescope, submitted images to the CBAT that were taken of asteroid (6478) Gault showing that it had developed a tail.
> In Jan. the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams issued a statement that confirmed that the asteroid had indeed grown a tail, and that they were issuing an alert to advise further monitoring of this rare event. They suspect that another asteroid belt object collided with Gault to create a debris field that developed into the tail.
> I became aware of it in Jan. when images were posted on SpaceWeather. I suspected that it was well beyond my capabilities to try and image it due to it's small size (2.3 mile dia.) and dim mag. (17.8 mag. as of today).
> But the curiosity of this rare event got the better of me, and I decided to give it a try just for grins. I got a decent night last Tues., Mar. 26 and, surprisingly, I was able to expose the asteroid and reveal that it still has a comet-like tail.
> This image is a combination of 15 exposures at 6400 iso of 60 sec. each taken by my Canon T4i with my 12.5" f/6 Homemade Newt. I had to enhance each exp. individually in PhotoShop in order to reveal the asteroid better. I then stacked them on the asteroid in Nebulosity and then returned it to PhotoShop to crop and finish the enhancement. There are a few gaps in the star trails due to having to stop several times to reference the image with a sky chart to make sure I was in the right area. The total time for all of my frames covers 50 mins. and the FOV is approx. 10 X 16 arc min.
> The asteroid is a main asteroid belt object and was at approx. 132 million miles from Earth at the time of this image.
> I'd be interested to see what PJMO can show of this asteroid when it gets back on line.
> Meanwhile, we'll just have to wait to see what happens with Gault, and how long it keeps it's tail. The jury is still out on how to classify Gault, but I suspect that they may find out that Gault was a comet all the time that got caught up in the asteroid belt and developed a crust over it's icy core. And when it got hit, enough crust was opened up to expose it's true identity. Maybe they'll call it a Cometoid. Ha!
>
> Anyway, I thought this was very interesting and wanted to share it with you guys.
>
> Johnny
>
> Attachment(s):
> File: 15X60-Gualt-3-26-19.jpg (81.6 KB) -- Address: http://s3.amazonaws.com/ClubExpressClubFiles/901132/attach/2270493_0_15X60-Gualt-3-26-19.jpg
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> You have received this message as a member of: Central Texas Astronomical Society
> Change preferences (including opt-out): https://CTAS.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=13&club_id=901132. Click on 'Forum Memberships' to change your settings for this forum, or 'Forum General Preferences' for all forums.
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>



It’s not very bright, but it’s the lone single starlike object at dead center (no trails) and the tail is pointing upward.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 28, 2019, at 4:30 PM, Astrophotography <astrophotography@centexastronomy.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks. Very interesting. But I can not see which is the comet/asteroid.
> Aubrey
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
> On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 1:21 PM, Astrophotography<astrophotography@centexastronomy.org> wrote:
>
>
> Hey guys, Question: When is a comet not a comet? Answer: When it's an asteroid
>
> Back around the first of Dec.2018 observations by the Virtual Telescope Project, which uses a 17" Plane-Wave Paramount telescope, submitted images to the CBAT that were taken of asteroid (6478) Gault showing that it had developed a tail.
> In Jan. the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams issued a statement that confirmed that the asteroid had indeed grown a tail, and that they were issuing an alert to advise further monitoring of this rare event. They suspect that another asteroid belt object collided with Gault to create a debris field that developed into the tail.
> I became aware of it in Jan. when images were posted on SpaceWeather. I suspected that it was well beyond my capabilities to try and image it due to it's small size (2.3 mile dia.) and dim mag. (17.8 mag. as of today).
> But the curiosity of this rare event got the better of me, and I decided to give it a try just for grins. I got a decent night last Tues., Mar. 26 and, surprisingly, I was able to expose the asteroid and reveal that it still has a comet-like tail.
> This image is a combination of 15 exposures at 6400 iso of 60 sec. each taken by my Canon T4i with my 12.5" f/6 Homemade Newt. I had to enhance each exp. individually in PhotoShop in order to reveal the asteroid better. I then stacked them on the asteroid in Nebulosity and then returned it to PhotoShop to crop and finish the enhancement. There are a few gaps in the star trails due to having to stop several times to reference the image with a sky chart to make sure I was in the right area. The total time for all of my frames covers 50 mins. and the FOV is approx. 10 X 16 arc min.
> The asteroid is a main asteroid belt object and was at approx. 132 million miles from Earth at the time of this image.
> I'd be interested to see what PJMO can show of this asteroid when it gets back on line.
> Meanwhile, we'll just have to wait to see what happens with Gault, and how long it keeps it's tail. The jury is still out on how to classify Gault, but I suspect that they may find out that Gault was a comet all the time that got caught up in the asteroid belt and developed a crust over it's icy core. And when it got hit, enough crust was opened up to expose it's true identity. Maybe they'll call it a Cometoid. Ha!
>
> Anyway, I thought this was very interesting and wanted to share it with you guys.
>
> Johnny
>
> Attachment(s):
> File: 15X60-Gualt-3-26-19.jpg (81.6 KB) -- Address: http://s3.amazonaws.com/ClubExpressClubFiles/901132/attach/2270493_0_15X60-Gualt-3-26-19.jpg
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<<
> You have received this message as a member of: Central Texas Astronomical Society
> Change preferences (including opt-out): https://CTAS.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=13&club_id=901132. Click on 'Forum Memberships' to change your settings for this forum, or 'Forum General Preferences' for all forums.
>
>

Thanks. Very interesting. But I can not see which is the comet/asteroid.

Aubrey

On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 1:21 PM, Astrophotography
<astrophotography@centexastronomy.org> wrote:



Hey guys, Question: When is a comet not a comet?  Answer: When it's an asteroid

Back around the first of Dec.2018 observations by the Virtual Telescope Project, which uses a 17" Plane-Wave Paramount telescope, submitted images to the CBAT that were taken of asteroid (6478) Gault showing that it had developed a tail.
In Jan. the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams issued a statement that confirmed that the asteroid had indeed grown a tail, and that they were issuing an alert to advise further monitoring of this rare event.  They suspect that another asteroid belt object collided with Gault to create a debris field that developed into the tail.
I became aware of it in Jan. when images were posted on SpaceWeather.  I suspected that it was well beyond my capabilities to try and image it due to it's small size (2.3 mile dia.) and dim mag. (17.8 mag. as of today).
But the curiosity of this rare event got the better of me, and I decided to give it a try just for grins.  I got a decent night last Tues., Mar. 26 and, surprisingly, I was able to expose the asteroid and reveal that it still has a comet-like tail.
This image is a combination of 15 exposures at 6400 iso of 60 sec. each taken by my Canon T4i with my 12.5" f/6 Homemade Newt. I had to enhance each exp. individually in PhotoShop in order to reveal the asteroid better. I then stacked them on the asteroid in Nebulosity and then returned it to PhotoShop to crop and finish the enhancement.  There are a few gaps in the star trails due to having to stop several times to reference the image with a sky chart to make sure I was in the right area. The total time for all of my frames covers 50 mins. and the FOV is approx. 10 X 16 arc min.
The asteroid is a main asteroid belt object and was at approx. 132 million miles from Earth at the time of this image.
I'd be interested to see what PJMO can show of this asteroid when it gets back on line.
Meanwhile, we'll just have to wait to see what happens with Gault, and how long it keeps it's tail.  The jury is still out on how to classify Gault, but I suspect that they may find out that Gault was a comet all the time that got caught up in the asteroid belt and developed a crust over it's icy core. And when it got hit, enough crust was opened up to expose it's true identity.  Maybe they'll call it a Cometoid. Ha!

Anyway, I thought this was very interesting and wanted to share it with you guys.

Johnny

Attachment(s):



Thanks, Johnny. That is very interesting.

Willie

> On Mar 28, 2019, at 13:21, Astrophotography <astrophotography@centexastronomy.org> wrote:
>
> Anyway, I thought this was very interesting and wanted to share it with you guys.
>
> Johnny
>
> Attachment(s):
> File: 15X60-Gualt-3-26-19.jpg (81.6 KB) -- Address: http://s3.amazonaws.com/ClubExpressClubFiles/901132/attach/2270493_0_15X60-Gualt-3-26-19.jpg
>
Hey guys, Question: When is a comet not a comet? Answer: When it's an asteroid

Back around the first of Dec.2018 observations by the Virtual Telescope Project, which uses a 17" Plane-Wave Paramount telescope, submitted images to the CBAT that were taken of asteroid (6478) Gault showing that it had developed a tail.
In Jan. the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams issued a statement that confirmed that the asteroid had indeed grown a tail, and that they were issuing an alert to advise further monitoring of this rare event. They suspect that another asteroid belt object collided with Gault to create a debris field that developed into the tail.
I became aware of it in Jan. when images were posted on SpaceWeather. I suspected that it was well beyond my capabilities to try and image it due to it's small size (2.3 mile dia.) and dim mag. (17.8 mag. as of today).
But the curiosity of this rare event got the better of me, and I decided to give it a try just for grins. I got a decent night last Tues., Mar. 26 and, surprisingly, I was able to expose the asteroid and reveal that it still has a comet-like tail.
This image is a combination of 15 exposures at 6400 iso of 60 sec. each taken by my Canon T4i with my 12.5" f/6 Homemade Newt. I had to enhance each exp. individually in PhotoShop in order to reveal the asteroid better. I then stacked them on the asteroid in Nebulosity and then returned it to PhotoShop to crop and finish the enhancement. There are a few gaps in the star trails due to having to stop several times to reference the image with a sky chart to make sure I was in the right area. The total time for all of my frames covers 50 mins. and the FOV is approx. 10 X 16 arc min.
The asteroid is a main asteroid belt object and was at approx. 132 million miles from Earth at the time of this image.
I'd be interested to see what PJMO can show of this asteroid when it gets back on line.
Meanwhile, we'll just have to wait to see what happens with Gault, and how long it keeps it's tail. The jury is still out on how to classify Gault, but I suspect that they may find out that Gault was a comet all the time that got caught up in the asteroid belt and developed a crust over it's icy core. And when it got hit, enough crust was opened up to expose it's true identity. Maybe they'll call it a Cometoid. Ha!

Anyway, I thought this was very interesting and wanted to share it with you guys.

Johnny
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