Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting this event out on Baut...Just got back in town today.

I've been on Vacation with my family fishing at Rice Lake In Ontario, Canada ....Lots a great big fish!!

I knew the NEO 2004 XP14 event was going to take place while I was on Vacation, I wanted to capture this big celestial fish,

so I brought my CCD camera with me Just in case it was clear, I figured that I could possibly meet up with a couple of Canadian Amateurs Astronomers to observe 2004xp14 on July 3, 2006.

I knew Rick Stankiewicz from previous contacts via the Peterborough Astronomical Association(PAA), Rick edits the Reflector Newsletter.

I e-mailed Rick and provided my telescope equipment requirements, after a quick reply, Rick stated that he had a fellow PAA member (Brett Hardy) who was willing to allow me use of his backyard observatory to record this event.

I thought now if we could only have clear weather, we may be able to record this event. After several thunder storms blew through, we got lucky and the skies finally cleared.

Brett was kind enough to host myself and Rick at his very nice "Cedar Knoll
Observatory"
He had a nice Astrophysics 1200 Goto Mount, with very accurate tracking....

I attached my ST9 CCD and preceeded to image through his 4" Televue Refractor, piggybacked on a 7" TMB APO Refractor. We used the 7" for visual use while the Near Earth Asteroid 2004 XP14 was cruising past the Earth.

The field of view of the Televue 4" scope (500mm FL) with ST9 CCD was
approximately 70.3 x 70.3 arcmin, 8.24 arcsec/pixel
I took 10 second exposures, every 20 seconds or so.

We got some nice images, as the asteroid swung by many Open clusters, including the well known NGC457 Owl cluster or E.T.Cluster, NGC 433, NGC 381, NGC366, and CZ3 clusters, then dawn came to end our observing and imaging session.

The all night Team Results.....A lot of Fun!

Lots of images and some great animations...........

including one movie showing a Meteor exploding across the NEO 2004_XP14 as well as 2 satellites passing through the field in this 34 frame movie from 06:22:31 to 06:35:46 U.T. This was worth missing a day of fishing on the lake......

Warning!!!!! It's an 1.6 megabyte download, but worth the wait to view.

(watch the movie closely or you will miss the meteor and satellites!)
Follow this link to the cool movies at

http://www.galacticimages.com/astronomical_events.html


regular still images are attached here,
the first one shows the 2004 XP14 asteroid as a dash at center.
the second image shows NGC457 owl cluster at lower left and the asteriod as a dash on the far right at center.

Because 2004 XP14 was very close, slightly over one lunar distance away, This Asteroid was moving very fast!!!!!!
It trailed in 10 second exposures.

Also there is a photo I took at of us in front of Brett's Cedar Knoll Observatory, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada!

(Left to Right) Rick, Brett, and John!

Thanks guys!

Attached Images

	2004xp14_0630UT.jpg (123.4 KB, 57 views)
	2004xp14_NGC457.jpg (134.5 KB, 53 views)
	Cedar_Knoll_Observatory2.jpg (131.3 KB, 43 views)

__________________
Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

99942 Apophis AKA 2004 MN4, the title subject, is a different asteroid from 2004 XP14, your photographic subject, no?

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...

I tried to get pics, but my dob was motorless. I was hoping to catch it as a star trail, but no such luck.

Thanks for sharing your pics. That's awesome to see the faint line against the stationary stars.

Canada was a great place to watch this as it put it high in the sky. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area it was only about 30 degrees above the horizon as it passed through Cassiopia.

01101001 makes a good point. Apophis (2004 MN₄), the asteroid that will make a close pass to Earth on April 13, 2029, and may slam into Earth on April 13, 2036, was nowhere near Earth that night. Too bad, or we could have bounced radar off it to refine our knowledge of its trajectory and eliminate the possibility of a 2036 crash. 2004 XP₁₄, the asteroid you imaged, doesn't have a name.

So which one of those 3 guys is you?
** edit. I just figured out from your profile that you're John.

I just watched your movie. Awesome!! This is exciting for me because I froze my *s* off making a lame attempt to come home with some images.

A little trivia about this asteroid (2004 XP₁₄). It's in an almost perfect resonance with Venus. These semi-regular close approaches to Earth affect its period preventing a perfect Venus resonance. It will return for a close approach to Earth in 2047. Again, it will be a little farther than the Moon

Asteroid Apophis coming within 20 k miles of earth - related thread

I get the two asteroids mixed up, too.

Great flicks, John!

Yes, your correct, I mislabeled that last post....thanks for the note, it is now corrected.

__________________
Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Hey cool movie!!

__________________
If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

Wonderful. Don't know how you guys even know where to look.

__________________
Round...everything is always round!

We downloaded the latest ephemeris from JPL to find the NEO 2004 XP14,

it was pretty accurate.....the NEO was dead center in our field of view every time.

__________________
Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Very fine images, well done!

__________________
Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

Video: CSI - Comet/Asteroid Scene Investigation
JPL scientists use advanced technologies to track asteroids and comets that have the potential to one day come close to Earth.

Flash video

Read more

__________________
`Irony` actually does mean `metal like`...

Man, nice images.

__________________
Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the prospect is staggering!