On July 3rd, asteroid 2004 XP14 will fly past Earth. It is situated just a bit farther than Moon. To be exact, its distance is 1.1x distance of Moon. XP14 is large enough (600 metres wide) and bright enough (11th magnitude) to see through backyard telescopes as it races across the star-fields of the Milky Way. There’s no danger of a collision, just a nice photo-op for amateur astronomers.
You are advised to use this page to generate the orbit simulation and high-accuracy ephemeris.
A 6inch telescope is recommended for this observation. 8inch and bigger telescopes are the most welcomed! This will be a great event for the astrophotographer as this is an interesting object. It will glide through the Milky Way in only 4 hours, passing many stars and nebulae along the way. You’re supposed to be able to take many combines of photos but time plays an important roll in this event.
So, before you enter this, please make sure that your instruments are precise, if not, you will regret. For me, I don’t dare to do trained drive for my 8″ LX90 as I don’t have a reticle eyepiece, it will only worsen the situation if I don’t have something to center the objects when I do the trainning. For observing tips, you may visit A.L.P.O. Minor Planets Section
Anyway, my Meade 8″ LX90, Meade Lunar Planetary Imager and Dell Inspiron 640M are ready! An observing note about this will not be missed!
