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.
Steve Ringwood reviews a dedicated 3″ field flattener designed for use with Orion’s EON 115/130 EDT refractors. One side of the field flattener threads on to the 3″ focuser, whilst the other offers a wide M48 thread that enables fixture of DSLRs, etc. without the vignetting possible with smaller M42 designs — particularly when deployed with full frame sensors.
On 31 March at 4am BST, Mars passes just 3.1 degrees south of the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. The Red Planet sets before midnight as seen from the UK, so you should look to the west as darkness falls. Mars and the Pleiades lie within the same field of view of typical 10×50 binoculars from 28 March through 1 April 2019.
NASA scientists are tracking the upcoming Halloween flyby of asteroid 2015 TB145 with several optical observatories and the radar capabilities of the agency’s Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California. Only discovered sixteen days ago, the 400-metre-wide asteroid will fly past Earth at a safe distance slightly farther than the Moon’s orbit on 31 October at 5:05pm GMT.
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.
