Asteroid Hermes has a curious knack for flying past Earth without anyone
noticing. It's approaching our planet again this week, but this time we
know it's coming. Amateur astronomers can see Hermes using backyard
telescopes and CCD cameras.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/31oct_hermes.htm?list907772
[ This Message was edited by: Whitters on 2003-11-01 08:04 ]
Comma seperated to use in Spreadsheet
Ephemeris Generator
Ephemeris Settings
Target Body: Asteroid (1937 UB)
Observer Location: London, England
Coordinates: 0°07'00.1''W, 51°30'00.0''N
From: A.D. 2003-10-31 00:00 UT
To: A.D. 2003-11-15 00:00
Step: 1 day
Format: Calendar Date and Time
Output Quantities: 1,9-10,19-20,24,29
Ref. Frame, RA/Dec Format: J2000, HMS
Apparent Coordinates Model: Airless
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HORIZONS Generated Ephemeris
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Ephemeris / WWW_USER Sat Nov 1 00:40:31 2003 Pasadena, USA / Horizons
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Target body name: (1937 UB) {source: JPL#41}
Center body name: Earth (399) {source: DE-0406LE-0406}
Center-site name: (User Defined Site)
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Start time : A.D. 2003-Oct-31 00:00:00.0000 UT
Stop time : A.D. 2003-Nov-15 00:00:00.0000 UT
Step-size : 1440 minutes
*******************************************************************************
Center geodetic : 359.883300, 51.5000, 0.00{E-lon(deg),Lat(deg),Alt(km)}
Center cylindric: 359.883300, 3978.6485, 4968.36{E-lon(deg),Dxy(km),Dz(km)}
Center pole/equ : High-precision EOP model {East-longitude +}
Center radii : 6378.1 x 6378.1 x 6356.8 km {Equator, meridian, pole}
Target pole/equ : No model available
Target radii : (unavailable)
Target primary : Sun {source: DE-0406LE-0406}
Interfering body: MOON (Req= 1737.400) km {source: DE-0406LE-0406}
Deflecting body : Sun, EARTH {source: DE-0406LE-0406}
Deflecting GMs : 1.3271E+11, 3.9860E+05 km^3/s^2
Small perturbers: Ceres, Pallas, Vesta {source: SB405-CPV-2}
Small body GMs : 6.32E+01, 1.43E+01, 1.78E+01 km^3/s^2
Atmos refraction: NO (AIRLESS)
RA format : HMS
Time format : CAL
EOP file : eop.031031.p040122
EOP coverage : DATA-BASED 1962-JAN-20 TO 2003-OCT-31. PREDICTS-> 2004-JAN-21
Units conversion: 1 AU= 149597870.691 km, c= 299792.458 km/s, 1 day= 86400.0 s
Table cut-offs 1: Elevation ( 0.0deg=YES),Airmass (>38.000=NO), Daylight (YES)
Table cut-offs 2: Solar Elongation ( 0.0,180.0=NO )
Table format : Comma Separated Values (spreadsheet)
*******************************************************************************
Initial heliocentric osc. elements wrt ecliptic and mean equinox of J2000.0:
EPOCH= 2452958.5 ! 2003-Nov-15.00 (CT) Residual RMS= .59657
EC= .6241870096739114 QR= .6219620116260549 TP= 2452996.622731092
OM= 34.51841763490087 W= 92.3942331673243 IN= 6.068387928660179
Asteroid physical parameters:
GM= n.a. RAD= n.a. ROTPER= n.a.
H= 17.446 G= .150 B-V= n.a.
ALBEDO= n.a. STYP= n.a.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Date__(UT)__HR:MN, , ,R.A._(ICRF/J2000.0), DEC_(ICRF/J2000.0), APmag, , Illu%, r, rdot, delta, deldot, S-T-O, Cnst,
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
2003-Oct-31 00:00, , , 23 23 06.16,-03 56 12.0, 13.23, , 85.6, 1.0368479112,-18.48460, 0.0629591579,-10.80292, 44.5659, Aqr,
2003-Nov-01 00:00, , , 22 53 18.94,-05 08 00.4, 13.23, , 80.2, 1.0261701823,-18.49503, 0.0570928313, -8.98379, 52.8182, Aqr,
2003-Nov-02 00:00, , , 22 17 26.88,-06 26 49.5, 13.30, , 73.0, 1.0154879177,-18.50062, 0.0524146400, -6.62409, 62.5830, Aqr,
2003-Nov-03 00:00, ,m, 21 35 40.43,-07 45 58.1, 13.50, , 64.0, 1.0048040403,-18.50100, 0.0492501930, -3.70737, 73.7884, Aqr,
>..... Elevation Cut-off Requested .....<
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Column meaning:
TIME
Prior to 1962, times are UT1. Dates thereafter are UTC. Any 'b' symbol in
the 1st-column denotes a B.C. date. First-column blank (" ") denotes an A.D.
date. Calendar dates prior to 1582-Oct-15 are in the Julian calendar system.
Later calendar dates are in the Gregorian system.
The uniform Coordinate Time scale is used internally. Conversion between
CT and the selected non-uniform UT output scale has not been determined for
UTC times after the next July or January 1st. The last known leap-second
is used over any future interval.
NOTE: "n.a." in output means quantity "not available" at the print-time.
SOLAR PRESENCE
Time tag is followed by a blank, then a solar-presence symbol:
'*' Daylight (refracted solar upper-limb on or above apparent horizon)
'C' Civil twilight/dawn
'N' Nautical twilight/dawn
'A' Astronomical twilight/dawn
' ' Night OR geocentric ephemeris
LUNAR PRESENCE
The solar-presence symbol is immediately followed by a lunar-presence symbol:
'm' Refracted upper-limb of Moon on or above apparent horizon
' ' Refracted upper-limb of Moon below apparent horizon OR geocentric
ephemeris
R.A._(ICRF/J2000.0)_DEC =
J2000.0 astrometric right ascension and declination of target. Corrected
for light-time. Units: HMS (HH MM SS.ff) and DMS (DD MM SS.f)
APmag =
Asteroid's approximate apparent visual magnitude by following definition:
APmag = H + 5*log10(delta) + 5*log10(r) - 2.5*log10((1-G)*phi1 + G*phi2).
Units: none
Illu% =
Fraction of target circular disk illuminated by Sun (phase), as seen by
observer. Units: PERCENT
r rdot =
Target apparent heliocentric range ("r") and range-rate ("rdot") as seen
by observer. Units: AU and KM/S
delta deldot =
Target apparent range ("delta") and range-rate ("delta-dot") relative to
observer. Units: AU and KM/S
S-T-O =
Sun-Target-Observer angle; target's apparent PHASE ANGLE as seen at
observer's location at print time. Units: DEGREES
Cnst =
Constellation ID; the 3-letter abbreviation for the constellation name of
target's astrometric position, as defined by IAU (1930) boundary delineation.
See documentation for list of abbreviations.
Computations by ...
Solar System Dynamics Group, Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System
4800 Oak Grove Drive, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA 91109 USA
Information: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/
Connect : telnet://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov:6775 (via browser)
telnet ssd.jpl.nasa.gov 6775 (via command-line)
Author : Jon.Giorgini@jpl.nasa.gov
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits/Awards
Contact: Webmaster (webmaster@ssd.jpl.nasa.gov)
Last modified: 2003 August 7 12:13
[ This Message was edited by: Whitters on 2003-11-01 08:42 ]
...no, didn't catch a word of that