Asteroid Toutatis, TV76, 9/20/04

Date: Night of Monday, 20-Sept-2004
Location: Backyard, Palm Springs, California
Equipment: Tele Vue 76 (3" f/6.3) refractor

Asteroid 4179 Toutatis is making one of its close passes to Earth this
month. It will be closest on the 29th but too far south for northern
observers. Also in a couple of days moonlight will interfere. I
thought i'd try to get a jump on things so after working the evening
shift i setup my TV76 in the backyard. I also had a new 9mm Nagler T6
eyepiece to try out that had just arrived today! At 1am local time on
the morning of 9/21 Toutatis was only 20=B0 above the SW horizon in
Capricornus. SkyTools says the asteroid is mag 10.7 and should be
about the same brightness as the dimmest stars visible. Using a
printed chart i carefully starhopped down from 37 Cap following a
little chain of 5 stars to a another perpendicular chain of 5 where
Toutatis should be the 5th "star" in the chain. This second chain was
just at the limit of visibility through the 3" scope, the mediocre
suburban sky conditions, and the low placement in the sky. But i can
see the 5th point... Toutatis! I think. I won't be happy or convinced
until it moves. At 1:08am i memorized the star pattern through the 9mm
as best i could and went on to visit some other objects and play with
my new eyepiece a bit. Returning to the Toutatis field again at 1:55am
it's only 12=B0 above the horizon and much more difficult to pick out
the dim stars. Fortunately my SW skies are fairly dark (all the car
dealerships are east) and i could just see the field stars and what i
hoped was Toutatis. And that 5th "star" had moved! Not much, but
enough to be obvious. Positive identification of Toutatis. Hurray!
(Comparing the movement to SkyTools the next day the movement i saw
pretty much matches exactly what the program predicted.) Not a bad
first night for a brand new eyepiece!


-Florian
Stargazing.com