See An Asteroid From Your Backyard

Every week, a handful of new Earth-approaching asteroids are caught in a net of robotic telescopes and join the ranks of nearly 16,000 other fly-by-night space boulders. Among their number is one 2014 JO25, discovered in May 2014 by astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) near Tucson, Arizona.

An artist's view of an Earth-approaching asteroid passing close
to our planet. ESA / P.Carril.

Observations made by NASA's NEOWISE mission have pegged the asteroid at roughly 650 meters (2,000 feet) across and twice as reflective as the Moon. That and its orbit are about all we know about this speeding space mountain for the moment.

That should change very soon. Asteroid 2014 JO25 will be making a close approach to Earth on April 19th. Because of its size and proximity, it will be bright enough to spot in a small, backyard telescope and moving fast enough to see in real-time.

The closest approach occurs around 12 UT (7 a.m. CDT) on April 19th when it zips by at 1.8 million km (fewer than 1.1 million miles) away, or about four times the distance to the Moon. When darkness falls in Europe and Africa that evening, the asteroid will shine at its peak magnitude of +10.7 along the Ursa Minor–Draco border. Several hours later, North American observers can catch it rolling west across Coma Berenices a hair fainter, between magnitude +10.8 and +11.0.

See the Full Source Article at http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/see-a-potentially-hazardous-asteroid-from-your-backyard/

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ATEO Telescope Installation Journey

The time is FINALLY arriving! Our dream of installing the Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO) is soon to become a reality. The plan is set for delivery of the ATEO and all of its imaging equipment the week of May 20, 2107. Insight Observatory co-founder Muir Evenden and I will be taking a 3-day road trip to Pie Town, New Mexico, where we will be installing and testing the 16" astrograph imaging telescope at its hosting facility, SkyPi Online Observatories. The telescope pier is ready for the deep-sky imaging system to be mounted on in SkyPi's Gamma Pod.

The pier where the ATEO will be installed on the week of May 20th, 2017.
The image was taken by a webcam located in the Gamma Pod.

The observatory structure is designed to house two telescope setups as pictured above. At the time ATEO is installed we will have a neighbor from Arkansas who will also be imaging with a 12.5" Newtonian astrograph. John Evelan, managing member of SkyPi Remote Observatories quoted "I'm personally excited to see the 2 together in that pod as they will be our first "Newts".

The trip is mapped out to take us on a 12-hour journey on day 1 just over the Indiana border with day 2 taking another 12-hour excursion just past Oklahoma City. The road trip will then commence on day 3 with a 10-hour drive taking us to our final destination of Pie Town, New Mexico. Our goal is to arrive by mid-afternoon on Monday, May 22th, 2017. Muir and I will be staying on the observatory grounds for 5 days to install, configure and test the ATEO. We will be assisted by the staff at SkyPi to get the telescope online. We will then return the moving truck to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and fly home to Boston, MA on the 28th of May.

Satellite image of the SkyPi Online Observatory Campus 
Image captured from Google Earth.

We are very excited to see our plan go into action after having this vision 6 years ago when Insight Observatory was founded. Muir and I plan on documenting the trip and the progress of the ATEO installation on this blog throughout the week of May 20th.

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Comet Lovejoy Brightens

Who doesn't love a comet that exceeds expectations? That's exactly what's happening with Terry Lovejoy's latest discovery, C/2017 E4 Lovejoy. Discovered on March 10th at magnitude +12, early observations suggested a peak magnitude of +9 in mid-April, assuming it didn't crumble apart en route to an April 23rd perihelion. Terry Lovejoy's comet discovery back in 2014, designated C/2014 Q2, was a real treat for northern hemisphere observers.

A faint ion trail extends for more than 1° in this photo taken on March 30. Note the comet's flattened coma shape.
North is up and east left. C/2017 E4 passes closest to Earth on March 31 (0.6 a.u.) and closest to the Sun on
April 23 (0.5 a.u.) Image by Gerald Rhemann.

Forget that. This fuzzball's already magnitude is +7–7.5 and a snap to see in 50-mm binoculars. I know because I got up Wednesday morning (March 29th) shortly before the start of dawn, pointed my 10×50 glass just below the figure of Equuleus, the Little Horse, and saw a small, dense ball of glowing fuzz without even trying. Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak — now circumpolar in Ursa Major — shines at a similar brightness, but being larger and less condensed, it's not quite as easy to see as Lovejoy.

A little more than a week ago, Comet Lovejoy glowed at magnitude +10–11; a few days ago it was at +9. Given its meteoric rise in brightness, observers are anticipating the comet to crest to magnitude +6 around perihelion as it describes a roller coaster arc across Pegasus and Andromeda. Twice it passes bright deep-sky objects: the bright globular cluster M15 on April 1st and the Andromeda Galaxy on April 20–22. Another easy time to spot it will be on April 8–9 alongside β Pegasi in the northwest corner of the Great Square.

With the Moon out of the picture until around April 7th, comet watchers have lots of dark-sky time to pursue this new find. Just remember that you'll only have a relatively short time before the start of dawn when the comet is highest in the eastern sky. Because of increasingly early sunrises, Lovejoy maintains a fairly constant 15° elevation at the start of morning twilight from mid-northern latitudes through mid-April. My observation was made at 5 a.m. about 10 minutes before dawn's first light. Look for a small, fuzzy spot that appears at first glance like an out-of-focus star.

Read Full Source Article at http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/comet-lovejoy-brightens-quickly-heads-north/

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