Astroblog: Locating 73P

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Locating 73P

Location Map for 73P fragments B and C (click to enlarge). The orientation is as seen to the north-east from Adelaide at around midnight. Similar views will be seen elswhere in the Southern hemisphere at equivalent local times (For a more general spotters map see here). Ignore the magnitudes, 73P-C is around mag 7.2-7.0, and B is around 7.5 at the moment. The circle is the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. Fragment B is close to a bright star in the square of Hecules over the next two nights, and should be easy to pick up.

For the most recent ephemeris, go to the Minor Planet Ephemeris Service and type
73P-B
73P-C
73P-G
one designation per line, into the the input box. You can get the data formatted for your favorite planetarium software.

(and a Hat tip to Phil the Bad Astronomer for mentioning my humble blog)

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 9:19 am