MAP Alert #361, July 1, 2007
 
Greetings MAP Observers!
 
Word of both new MAP object and a new MAP observer come from Gerard Faure
in this cold and gloomy July 1st MAP alert!
 
First, let us welcome Charly Berthet to our ranks. He brings a 12" telescope as described
and has been added to our mailing list today. Very glad to see another visual observer
with the best of possible teacher in Gerard to guide his future work. 
 
 
Gerard's Letter of June 30, 2007
 
Hi Lawrence and all,


As in the past, I am very busy and the weather don't gives good nights
since the end of April 2007.
Here, we had cool months from January to April, but now, after a bad end of
Spring, the Summer seems to be not better....

In June 2007, I observed two times, on June 09 (results already given) and
during the short night of June 23-24 with an experienced Dobson observer
named Charly BERTHET.

Charly came with his Dobson Celestron Starhopper 12 and we observed with
his telescope and with my C8 various objects during 4 hours, notably some
asteroids :
(4)    Vesta       mag v 5.9 (unaided eye, binoculars and telescopes)
(897)  Lysistrata  mag v13.4 (with the C8)
(1775) Zimmerwald  mag v14.9-14.8  F/0.2-F/0.1  (C8)
  -    2007 FV42   mag v15.2 (3x)  F/0.4  +/-0.1 (C8)

2007 FV42 is a small NEA (Amor 3 - H = 17.8) which seems to be 0.4 mag
fainter than predicted. It's now a new MAP object !
Since our observations, the MPC changed the absolute magnitude for H 17.8
to H 17.9; No lightcurve has been published up to now. The NEA will be
brighter than V15 predicted up to July 14, and north to -34° of declination.>
 
Good work Gerard and Charly.
 
Cold and gloomy July 1st, at least the day started that way. But late day broken
clouds have allowed the temps to rise into the 60'sF/16c, quite a come down from 
Wednesday's 98F/37c. I may in fact catch the Venus/Saturn pairing later, some
45 minutes distant tonight. Have had no asteroid observing, except for tracking Vesta
in binoculars. I did observe a lunar crater from a heads up posting in on ALPO group,
spotting Einstein right at 90w. But of course "asteroid" luck followed me to the moon,
as I was clouded out unexpectedly just one minute later. Who said observing lunar libration
zones was easy?
 
Clear Skies!
 
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section
Assistant Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com  
 
AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map