Skies Over West Seattle, special edition: Asteroid & comet in range!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Two special sights in the sky have sparked this edition of our periodic feature by West Seattle’s own Solar System Ambassador Alice Enevoldsen, so get ready to find out what to look for, how, and where.

(Processed photograph of Comet Q2 Lovejoy by Jason Ayres Gift Enevoldsen taken January 16, 2015 from near The Junction)
By Alice Enevoldsen
Special to West Seattle Blog

Asteroid 2004 BL86 is going to be flying past the Earth on Monday night, at a distance of only three times the distance to the Moon. It will not hit us, but it will be visible from West Seattle with a telescope or steady binoculars. Clear Sky Chart is still predicting clear enough skies to look for it.

At the same time, Comet 2014 Q2 Lovejoy is also a beautiful telescope object this week, and will be until the Moon gets too bright.

If you don’t have a telescope, attach a pair of binoculars to a tripod or other steady object. You’ll see some neat things, definitely the comet, and perhaps the asteroid if you have very sensitive eyes.

Finding Asteroid 2004 BL86

Near-Earth asteroids move across our sky more slowly than shooting stars and satellites, but faster than the Moon. They are dim and tiny. This one will be visible in a decent backyard telescope for most of the night of January 26 to the morning of January 27.

I recommend watching for it around 8:30 pm because that’s when it will cross close to M44, the Beehive Cluster in the constellation Cancer.

To find it, you’ll start by looking about halfway up the sky while facing due East. The asteroid will be incredibly dim, one of the dimmest objects you see in your telescope field of view, but once you have the Beehive Cluster visible, keep checking back and see if one of the dimmest “stars” nearby seems to move. Sketching by hand with a pencil and paper can help you pay close enough attention to the angles between stars to notice minute changes like this.

Another trick is to take a series of long-exposure photographs of the right area of the sky. If you fail to catch the asteroid, you’ll still have a beautiful picture including the Beehive Cluster. Compare the photos later to see if you can find the moving object. It’s easiest to do this by switching back and forth between aligned photos. Originally this would have been done with a tool called a blink comparator, but your home computer does it just fine.

Finding Comet 2014 Q2 Lovejoy

(Processed photograph of Comet Q2 Lovejoy by Jason Ayres Gift Enevoldsen taken January 16, 2015 from near The Junction)

This is not your only chance to see Comet 2014 Q2 Lovejoy. It’s been in the sky for weeks, and nicely visible for the past week or two. However, since you’re out looking for the asteroid, take a moment to find the comet as well. It will probably be a more satisfying experience than finding the asteroid.

Comets also move, but Comet 2014 Q2 Lovejoy is quite a bit farther away than Asteroid 2004 BL86, so it’s moving a lot more slowly across our sky. You can find it in the constellation Triangulum this week, just below Perseus.

Using a telescope you should expect to see a grey smudge, possibly with something that might be a tail pointed off one direction. Long exposures and stacking images are how amateurs all over the world are creating those incredibly green and blue images with obvious comas and tails with intriguing detail. You’ll probably also see some detail in the smudge, part of it brighter than the other. This is the difference between the nucleus (the actual “core” of the comet) and the coma (the gasses surrounding the body of the comet).

The comet is currently magnitude 4.4, which means that it is technically naked-eye visible. I don’t know anyone who has seen it naked-eye from Seattle yet.

Hey, what’s that?

While you’re out setting up for these, you will not be able to miss Jupiter, high in the sky in the East, or the Pleiades almost directly overhead. While you’re searching for the comet with your binoculars you’ll start wondering what those two clusters of stars near each other are. They’re h and χ Persei (pronounced “h and kai”), also known as “The Double Cluster.”

Resources:

Asteroid 2004 BL86: Sky and Telescope, NASA Near Earth Object Program

Comet 2014 Q2 Lovejoy: Sky and Telescope, Seiichi Yoshida

Stellarium: Free planetarium software for your home computer. Bring up the sky for anywhere in the world – any time and date in history, or the future.

Clear Sky Chart: The astronomer’s forecast for the next couple days. Cloud cover, darkness, and “seeing” which is how nice it is to view the stars, all on one handy chart.

USNO: Dates and times of astronomical happenings.

International Dark Sky Association

Who is Alice?

Alice is many things and has worked and volunteered for a few different notable organizations, but the suggestions and opinions put forth in this article are her own and no-one else’s. You can follow her on Twitter at @AlicesAstroInfo and Facebook at facebook.com/followalicesastroinfo.

4 Replies to "Skies Over West Seattle, special edition: Asteroid & comet in range!"

  • ACG January 26, 2015 (10:20 am)

    Alice, thanks for doing these segments. They are awesome! And, WSB thanks for publishing them!

  • JayDee January 26, 2015 (6:13 pm)

    Alice, thanks for chiming in. I did see the comet when it was near the Pleiades, but more as a diffuse glow through hi-power binocs. At least tonight it is balmy enough to keep looking w/o chattering teeth.

  • Ariana January 26, 2015 (7:17 pm)

    We’re not able to see the asteroid yet(tree in the way), but we got a great treat when we pointed the telescope to Jupiter. We could see four of her moons, lined up nicely!

  • Alice January 26, 2015 (7:38 pm)

    Glad people are out looking! Enjoy whatever you find, even if you don’t catch the asteroid…

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