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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Asteroid Flyby:  4179 Toutatis

*I love it when spaceweather.com hosts movies of asteroids moving along.  Can see it tumbling:

*This one (2 x 5 km in size) is soon to fly past us.  No danger of collision.  Will pass on September 29, four times the distance of our Moon.  More info (including directions for viewing via backyard 'scopes) at the web page.

(About the image: 40-min. movie of asteroid Toutatis on Sept. 23rd. Credit: Eric Allen of Québec's Observatoir du Cégep de Trois-Rivières.)

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

Shaun Barrett

Member

From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Registered: 2001-12-28

Posts: 2,843

Re: Asteroid Flyby:  4179 Toutatis

What a marvellous little movie!
    I've never seen anything like it before. You really can see the thing tumbling through space!
    I'm very impressed.
    Thanks, Cindy!    :up:   

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The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Asteroid Flyby:  4179 Toutatis

*No need to thank me, Mr. Barrett; the pleasure is all mine. 

Same asteroid, different view and background:

End-over-end...  :laugh:

Is moving in front of stars within the constellation Capricornus (Sept. 23). 

"Observers in the southern hemisphere are favored. Toutatis is south of the celestial equator, today scooting through the constellation Microscopium. On Sept. 29th, the date of closest approach, it will pass about 1 degree from the star Alpha Centauri as seen from Australia and New Zealand." 

There ya go, Shaun.  Have a telescope handy and you're all set!    [edit:  At magnitude 9, it may also be visible in powerful binoculars]

Movie hosted again by spaceweather.com.  Also, this movie was obtained from Alberto Quijano Vodniza et al. at the University of Nariño Observatory in Columbia.

Check out the meteor streaking across the field towards the end!

--Cindy

P.S.:  Here's http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/sw … o1.gif]the original link, in case the image doesn't work well in this post.

:edit:  Saw this item in another article:  "Asteroid Toutatis, a frequent visitor in our neighborhood..."  A frequent visitor, eh? 

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)