What Can We Expect To Observe About Asteroid 194 Prokne During Its Opposition?

Asked a month ago
Answer 1
Viewed 43
0

Asteroid 194 Prokne will be well-positioned, lying in the constellation Aquarius, well above the horizon for much of the night.

Regardless of where you are on Earth, 194 Prokne will reach its highest point in the sky at midnight local time.

From New Delhi, it will be visible between 20:24 and 04:18. It will become visible about 20:24, when it reaches a height of 21° above your south-eastern horizon. It will reach its highest point in the sky at 00:21, 52° above the southern horizon. It will become inaccessible at around 04:18, when it falls below 21° above your south-western horizon.

Read More: What is the difference between a meteor and an asteroid and a comet?

Geometry of alignment

This ideal placement occurs when it is closest to the point in the sky directly opposite the Sun, a phenomenon known as opposition. Because the Sun reaches its lowest position below the horizon at midnight, the opposing point in the sky is also the highest.

Around the same time as 194 Prokne passes opposition, it makes its closest approach to the Earth, known as perigee, making it seem brightest in the night sky. This happens because when 194 Prokne is opposite the Sun in the night sky, the solar system is aligned such that 194 Prokne, the Earth, and the Sun form a straight line, with the Earth in the middle and on the same side of the Sun as 194 Prokne.

On this day, 194 Prokne will pass within 1.006 AU of us, with a maximum brightness of magnitude 9.5. Nonetheless, even at its brightest, 194 Prokne is a faint object that cannot be seen with the naked eye; binoculars or a moderate aperture telescope are necessary.

Finding 194 Prokne.

The figure below displays 194 Prokne's passage across the sky at the moment of opposition.

It was created using StarCharter and is available for download in two formats: dark backdrop (PNG, PDF, or SVG) and light background (PNG, PDF, or SVG).

Source

The conditions surrounding this event were approximated using orbital components made available by Ted Bowell of the Lowell Observatory. The Earth's position was converted to geocentric coordinates using the DE430 ephemeris provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The star chart above illustrates the positions and magnitudes of stars from the Tycho collection. The data was reduced by the author and plotted using PyXPlot. A gnomonic projection of the sky has been used, with celestial coordinates shown in the J2000.0 coordinate system.

Answered a month ago Anonymous Anonymous