Asteroid 1998 QE2 - now visible

[starfinder]

There is a very large near Earth asteroid currently making its closest approach to Earth, asteroid (285263) 1998 QE2. Read more about it here:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observin ... 88881.html

And here:
http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2013/05/ ... as-a-moon/
http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2013/05/ ... ays-flyby/

It will be visible from Singapore over the next few nights at around mag 11, from today (Fri 31 May 2013) till at least Mon 3 June 2013. It will be in the Libra-Ophiuchus region, in the SE in the evenings. Its exact celestial coordinates may be obtained here:
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=1 ... cad=0#elem

This evening, I managed to view the asteroid from Singapore city in the eyepiece of my Meade LX-90 8" SCT telescope, at 100x (Pentax 20mm XW eyepiece). The object was seen to have clearly moved against the background stars in the course of around 10-15mins. It was very faint but visible with direct vision.

I then imaged it with the same telescope using a Canon EOS 60D dSLR camera. Here is a .GIF animation made from 11 frames, each 1 minute apart (and each 10s duration at ISO 2500):
(If you are using a smartphone or tablet, you might have to use different browers to be able to see the GIF animation, or download the file and run with with a GIF player)

[shirox]

Wow Gavin, that is so awesome! Good work!

[Gary]

Good job! NASA TV and SLOOH will be streaming live during its closest approach at around 4:59am later.

[jiahao1986]

Wow you did it again Gavin!

[VeeJay]

Brilliant work Gavin, thanks!
Did anyone else catch it last night? Any plans for tonight? I can see patches of blue sky towards the South-East now.

[VeeJay]

After lots of perseverance, I was finally able to spot the elusive space rock!
A faint dot, moving through Libra.

Thanks for the inspiration and the links, Gavin

[Gary]

Congrats VeeJay! Through your 8-inch SCT I guess?

[starfinder]

Great work, VeeJay! Glad you saw it too.

BTW, I submitted a smaller-cropped version of my GIF animation to Sky & Telescope yesterday morning and they've published it in their article on the asteroid within an hour!
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observin ... 88881.html

So nice of them. Wished they had mentioned that it was taken from Singapore city though (had stated it).

[Gary]

Congrats again and well done!