MAP Alert #359, April 21 2007
 
Greetings MAP Observers!
 
Reports of asteroid milestones and visual observations of 2006 VV2
highlight this "Spring @ last" MAP report
 
...AND THEN CAME ESPERANTO !
Gerard Faure announced his 2000th asteroid seen visually 1421 ESPERANTO
to join Ben Hudgens in the A2K asteroids club with this message of April 16. 
 
<Hi to all,
At first, I hope that Lawrence will be soon in a better health !
Since numerous months, it's curious to read the news from Lawrence who 
says that the weather is very cold in the N-E of the USA; Here, it's just 
the opposite with no snow during all the winter and now the spring is like 
a summer. We have good temperatures and good skies in April and more recently 
since Saturday and at least up to the next Thursday.

Alas, I work this week, but I didn't missed the starry night of 
Saturday April 14-15 !

Since the middle of the last week, I had a goal : A big night of visual
observations.... 
Friday evening, I prepared 24 charts with asteroid paths and one for a
remote comet. This number was too important for one night but I wanted 
to have objects from various magnitudes and various sky locations to 
observe a great number of asteroids.

Saturday, the clouds moved away only before the dusk and I came quickly 
to the mountains.

I began to observe TARKA at the end of dusk, but I had problems with 
the turbulence and then had difficulties to see this first asteroid low in 
the sky.
From 21H00 UT to 01H00 UT, I finally tracked five other asteroids less
lower in the sky : NURMELA, RUNCORN, UCCLIA, DELPORTIA and NECKAR.

Then, at 01H00 UT, it was the time to see.... THE 2000th VISUAL 
ASTEROID
!!!! .... chosed before to be (1421) ESPERANTO !

For my 1000th asteroid on June 14,1996 the minor planet (309) 
FRATERNITAS
was chosen for its good human quality.
In 2007, I chose (1421) ESPERANTO for this idea from Zamenhof in 1887 
to create an international language for a common scientific usage. The
inventor used the pseudonym "Doctoro Esperanto"

I saw my 2000th different asteroid with my C8 at 01H07 UT and verified 
its motion at 01H47 UT ! I took many images during the verification of the
Esperanto motion. I join one of them to the message

After Roger HARVEY in October 1987 and recently Ben HUDGENS in January
2007, I began the third visual observer who reached the 2000 mark.
I am also the only one European observer who reached the 1000 then the 
2000 asteroids !

The night was not finished and as the sky was more pure and quiet at 
the end of the night, I tried to show two Lilliputian asteroids recently
discovered : "2007 DS84" ( about 300 meters of diameter ) and "2007 
GU1" (about 50 meters of diameter) at respectively 6.2 and 1.5 millions of km
from Earth !

Near Sigma Serpentis, I easily reached to locate 2007 DS84 of predicted 
magV15.5. I noted 12 positions among the stars during 40 minutes! It seemed to 
be more bright at the beginning than at the end of the observations.

Just before dawn, I tried to see the outsider 2007 GU1 of predicted mag
V16.0, then certainly too difficult for a very fast object with a 200mm
telescope...
It was located south of the globular cluster M5. With a speed of more 
than 1° by hour, it moved very quickly toward the south sky. 

Many times, it seemed to be visible at the limit, some minutes before 
the predicted time for various stellar areas chosen before its passage but
after 50 minutes it was too late to have a chance to accredit it in a too 
clear dawn !

Due to the turbulence, I only observed 8 asteroids but the main goal 
was reached : I saw my 2000th DIFFERENT MINOR PLANET !!!

I found no MAP discrepancy for these objects

Warm regards
Gerard>
 
I like those warm regards Gerard, and your 200th asteroid as well. Off list I have complained
much of not feeling good and this years bad weather, now both history. We have weather in
the 70sF this weekend at last. 
 
 
Before the close approach of 2006 VV2, I had to decide if promoting this objects
flyby would be a good thing. Since this was so close to the moon, I let this fall by
the wayside, what a mistake! I do try to post maps and highlight bright asteroids with 
my club and other sites without any response at all. So with the bright moon this seemed
another lost cause. But for those who did take the time to try this object, they were treated
with an excellent flyby with light variations as well as fast motion.
 
I observed these variations without knowing it on March 24, or believe I did. At this time, I suspected the setting
moon had been too bright for me to detect this as a 14th magnitude object. But in light on the message below,
this may have been lightcurve based rather then lunar brightness trouble. 2006VV2 did become visible after a half
hour of searching. The message below was forwarded  Richie Bookamer 



 
 
<Hi Gerard and Lawrence,
     I finally got to see 2006 VV2 on the evening of March 28 after 
unsuccessfully attempting to view it on March 23, 25 and 27.  It was 
very easy to see in spite of moonlight, with galaxies M81 and M82 
less than 30 arc minutes away as well.  It is my 887th asteroid.
     I think this asteroid was at least half a magnitude brighter 
than the MPC prediction of 11.8 although for a short time it faded to 
about 12 magnitude and then brightened again.  I will send more 
details soon.  Two of my comparison stars were bright enough to have 
Tycho identifications, with Tycho magnitudes of 11.23 and 11.14 and 
GSC magnitudes of 10.9 and 10.7 respectively.
     I don't know whether anyone else has been viewing this one yet, 
but I highly recommend everyone to try.  I found it surprisingly easy 
and hope that I am correct that it is brighter than expected.  Happy 
asteroid hunting,
   Richie Bookamer>
 
What a report! Light curve changes changes in such a small amount of time caused me to requests current lightcurves on the 
MPML. And also to request more information from Richie. His Letter.
 
<Hello Lawrence,
   You asked, << How long was your observing period, >>

  On March 28 at 8:26 pm EDT the asteroid was brighter than mag. 
11.5 (comparison star: GSC 4386-0376).
   At 8:41pm it was GSC mag. 10.9 and Tycho mag. 11.23, the star of 
equal brightness being TYC 4383-00264-1.
   At 8:59 pm it was about mag. 12.2 (GSC 4383-0072).
   At 9:21 pm it was GSC mag. >10.7 and Tycho mag. >11.14, being 
about 0.3 mag. fainter than TYC 4383-0744-1.
   At 10:03 pm it was brighter than mag. 11.4 (GSC 4383-0242).
   I continued to watch the asteroid until after 10:30pm, a total 
time of just over two hours.
   So, it seems to have faded by a full magnitude in less than 20 
minutes, then returned to full brightness in about 40 minutes and 
remained bright for at least an hour.  I think the GSC magnitude is 
probably in error (too faint) and the asteroid actually dimmed by 
only about half a magnitude.  But I'm certain that it brightened and 
faded slightly at least several times, but the changes were too 
subtle for me to document.  And generally, it seemed at least 0.5 
mag. brighter than the predicted 11.8, I will try for it again 
tonight (Mar. 29) if weather permits.  take care,
   Richie>
 
The reports only gets better. My response from the MPML was equally exciting. 
This post to by Petr Pravec (Ondrejov Observatory) provided confirming
data to Richie's sightings observations> 
 
 
Plots of the 2.4302h-period lightcurve for 2006 VV2 obtained during
2007 March 13.0-17.1 from Modra, Badlands, and Ondrejov,
2007 March 25.8-26.3 from Ondrejov, Carbuncle Hill, and Sonoita Research
Observatory,
2007 March 27.9-28.0 by G. Masi from Italy
http://www.asu.cas.cz/~asteroid/2006vv2_070313_17_mainpc.png
http://www.asu.cas.cz/~asteroid/2006vv2_070325_26_mainpc.png
http://www.asu.cas.cz/~asteroid/2006vv2_070327_gmasi.png

Cheers,

Petr Pravec

> Dear Lawrence, all,
>
> A few stations were working the asteroid within the framework of our
> Photometric Survey for Asynchronous Binary Asteroids. A period of
> 2.4302 h (uncertainty <0.001 h) has been established with observations
> by Jozef Vilagi, Leos Kornos and Stefan Gajdos from Modra Observatory
> obtained during March 13-17. More observations have been obtained
> from Ondrejov, Carbuncle Hill, Sonoita Research Observatory, Badlands,
> and by Gianluca Masi, confirming the period and monitoring changes in
> the lightcurve. We plan to give out some plots of the light curve
> later today.
> If you are interested to see the brightness variation yourself, you
> can probably see it even with simple instruments or visually. A
> following information may guide you for now: The amplitude of 2006 VV2
> was 0.52 mag on March 28.0 (the last session by G. Masi), and the
> fastest drop from the maximum to the minimum took just 22 minutes.
>
> Petr Pravec
> Ondrejov Observatory>
 
What a piece of visual work on this object, wow! Given the heads up, I also observed these variations on the night
of close approach, but with all the work on this object completed, I just watched the show. After very bad weather
I have in fact been returning to the eyepiece this week, and will enjoy my third straight night tonight.
My Son and Greg and I observed and tried to photograph the conjunction of Venus/M45, but the sky hazed too much.
I have had excellent planets and 4 bright asteroids last night. I hope for good lunar/planets and asteroids tonight.
And lastly, I have heard of stonewashed clothes, but not stones included. Seems its quite common as I have been told at
Sears today. Three pumice stones were found in the pockets of my new jacket, but we really know these are
just very minor planets! Really, these could not be better small asteroid models if they tried, one is 1.5" in diameter. 
So if wearing "asteroid washed" clothes this Spring is in, head out to Sears!
 
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section
Assistant Coordinator
lgasteroid@earthlink.net     revised mail address
 
AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map    revised URL