This view of the constellations Orion and Taurus shows the track of near-Earth asteroid 2015 TB145 from 9pm GMT on 30 October to 5am GMT on 31 October as seen from the centre of the British Isles. Despite the glow of a nearby 18-day-old waning gibbous Moon, 2015 TB145 is predicted to be bright enough to be seen in telescopes of 6-inch aperture and larger. See below for a 10x enlargement for telescope users. AN graphic by Ade Ashford.Four hundred-metre-wide asteroid 2015 TB145 passes just 302,500 miles (486,800 kilometres) or 1.3 lunar distances away from Earth on the evening of Saturday, 31 October 2015. There is no fear of a collision, but this is the closest approach by a known object this large until asteroid 1999 AN10 (800 metres in size) approaches at about 1 lunar distance (238,000 miles from Earth) in August 2027. According to predictions, Apollo-class asteroid 2015 TB145 could exceed 11th magnitude at its brightest on the evening of Saturday, 31 October as it passes closest to Earth at 5pm GMT.
Observing 2015 TB145 from the UK 30-31 October
As seen from the British Isles, the asteroid should therefore be within range of 6-inch aperture telescopes and larger from the onset of darkness on Friday, 30 October through to dawn twilight the following morning, despite the glow of a gibbous Moon in the sky. UK-based observers can then locate it again as darkness falls on Saturday night through to about 9pm GMT.
For observers with telescope mounts equipped with digital setting circles or computerised GoTo instruments, the following table lists J2000.0 topocentric coordinates of asteroid 2015 TB145 at hourly intervals for the centre of the British Isles. Since the asteroid is passing so close to Earth, there will be a small parallax displacement for those observers widely separated from the heart the UK.If you feel confident at using charts at the telescope, what follows is a ten-times enlargement of the naked-eye finder chart at the top of the page. Click the graphic for a greyscale version suitable for printing out for use at the telescope. Asteroid 2015 TB145 will be glimering at about magnitude +11.9 as it passes 5 arcminutes to the northwest of magnitude +4.4 star π2 Orionis close to 02:07 UT on Saturday, 31 October.This zoomed-in view of the wide-field finder chart at the top of the page shows stars down to magnitude +13 on the border of Orion and Taurus and the 6.8 degree-long track of asteroid 2015 TB145 from 21h UT on Friday, 30 October to 05h UT on 31 October. Click the graphic for a greyscale version suitable for printing and using outside at the telescope. AN graphic by Ade Ashford.
The eerie glow of a dead star, which exploded long ago as a supernova, reveals itself in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Crab Nebula in the constellation of Taurus. But don’t be fooled. The ghoulish-looking object still has a pulse. Buried at its centre is the star’s telltale heart — a neutron star which beats with rhythmic precision.
Bright Comet 46P/Wirtanen skims past Earth just 30 lunar distances away on 16 December when it could become a diffuse magnitude +3 object almost a degree wide located between the Pleiades and Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus. Grab your binoculars and find a dark sky location well away from streetlights to enjoy this Christmas comet before the glow from a waxing Moon gets too bright from 17 December.
Have you ever seen the Moon hide a star? If you’re an early riser in the UK with a small telescope on Saturday, 24 August 2019 then you can potentially witness the disappearance and reappearance of three naked-eye stars in the Hyades open star cluster of Taurus between 3:40am BST and shortly after sunrise.
If you feel confident at using charts at the telescope, what follows is a ten-times enlargement of the naked-eye finder chart at the top of the page. Click the graphic for a greyscale version suitable for printing out for use at the telescope. Asteroid 2015 TB145 will be glimering at about magnitude +11.9 as it passes 5 arcminutes to the northwest of magnitude +4.4 star π2 Orionis close to 02:07 UT on Saturday, 31 October.
