Asteroid (2) Pallas at opposition on 10th April 2019

Asteroid (2) Pallas lies immediately beside bright (naked eye visible) star Muphrid in Bootes tonight making it fairly easy to line up.

Its not far from Arcturus in the South East.

 

Pallas is the 2nd largest asteroid in the belt at about 500km diameter.

 

Its at opposition (or closest approach) tonight at 1.6 AU or 241 million km away from Earth (13.4 light minutes).

 

Magnitude is +7.9

 

Modified Canon 80d with IDAS LPS filter.

Samyang 135mm f/2 at f/2.8

Skywatcher Star Adventurer pro mount with PoleMaster alignment.

 

45 x 30s subs @ ISO400

Camera sensor 12-13c

30 temperature-matched darks from dark library

60 flat frames

90 bias frames

 

Astrometrics

Center (RA, hms):13h 56m 04.476s

Center (Dec, dms):+19° 22' 18.80"

Size: 3d 58' 8.1" x 2d 56' 8.5"

Pixel scale: 5.9 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: - 25.074 degrees

Done