by Jane Houston Jones
We got an hour's worth of 2002 NY40 last night from 9:30 to 10:30 p.m. here in urban San Rafael, CA, elevation 200 feet 37N 122W. We invited friends with or without telescopes over for a spur-of-the-moment asteroid party, gambling that our location would be clearer than our usual observing spots to the north and to the south.
In the afternoon and until sunset we enjoyed looks at the sunspots through our homemade sidewalk solar scope and through a 6-inch reflector fitted with a homemade baader filter. We also observed H-Alpha sunlight through the Coronado/TV Ranger combo.
Then while waiting for dark, we looked in the 'fridge'n freezer and took out a few bits and pieces of this and that. Half an hour later, we feasted on a big bowl of chicken linguisa spaghetti sauce over lemon pepper linguini and Mojo's fresh baked bread, and then everybody set up their telescopes. Soon there were eight scopes on the front deck and the driveway.
Mojo was the first to spot swift and small 2002 NY40 in his 14.5-inch f/4.8 LITEBOX reflector. Our friend Jim also found it in his 8-inch LX-10. Our friend Stacy was happy to spot the moon in her new 10-inch dob without a finder. For a good hour we kept the asteroid in Mojo's scope before it entered Dobson's hole. After flipping the telescope around, he searched another 30 minutes without luck. It was in a region with too few bright stars and too much haze by then.
But all our pals got to see the asteroid whizz through the field of view several times through two telescopes. Then we all aimed at the moon for a while. The moon was about the only object we could all find in the poor conditions. We set up our AP Traveler on the back deck and had a shootout with a friend's TV102. The TV 102 has a longer focal length than the Traveler and the conditions made the shoot out somewhat of a non-event, but it was fun anyway. Everyone was happy to have seen the asteroid and to hang out and party.
We had Sky Map Pro version 7 up and running with the asteroid swiftly moving across the screen of one laptop, and we had the depressing weather loops showing on another laptop. We were glad we got to see the real thing at all through a couple telescopes. Our impromptu asteroid party was a great success.