Thanks, Patrick, that's very interesting. I plugged the orbital elements into Starry Night and it looks like actual closest approach takes place in the afternoon (local time) of 30 March. At about 9PM (good and dark) on Friday, March 30th with asteroid 2006 VV2 at a near-minimum distance of .0227 AU from Earth, a typical 8" amateur telescope (~170x with 18' FOV) will show the magnitude 9 object taking about 20 minutes to travel the width of the FOV. It looks pretty cool in the Starry Night simulation. To get the full effect you should have the telescope track a nearby star so you get a constant FOV. That way the asteroid is more noticeable as it moves relative to the other non-moving stars. One thing to watch for, however, is that a nearly full moon will be only about 22 degrees below the telescope's point of aim. If any of you folks manage to capture images of this event, preferably video, I'd like to try offering it to our web site visitors (with copious credit to the photographer/videographer, of course) as a downloadable file accompanied by some educational materials about asteroids. Thanks, Seth Jarvis, Director Clark Planetarium -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+sjarvis=slco.org@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+sjarvis=slco.org@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Wiggins Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 9:42 PM To: utah astronomy listserve utah astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Mag 10 asteroid flyby On 31 March, a 2-km wide asteroid named 2006 VV2 will shoot past the Earth. There's no danger of a collision as it will be nearly 9 times farther away than the Moon. The flyby is interesting because it is so bright, between 9th and 10th magnitude, making it an easy target for backyard telescopes with CCD cameras and maybe even large binoculars. But when it does get close look quick as, at closest approach it will be moving across the sky at just over 1 arc minute per minute. 3D orbit: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=2006+VV2 Ephemeris: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Unusual/ K06V02V.html pw _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com