Toutatis ? - I'm Not Sure

[mfortsm]

At 0400UT on 08/15/2004 I slew to where this beast was suppose to be.  I took a series of images over a 30 minute period and after composing a small giff movie found what I was after--I think.  I tried to compair the original image with Guide8 and can't match the field.  I croped the images down and posted the movie so you can see what I got.  Maybe Dr. Clay can chim in here.  In this movie N is just to the left of center top.  This is a 240kb file.  Thanks, Mike H.  

http://www.fototime.com/F45805192436C75/orig.gif

[mfortsm]

Well with some sleep and another try, I have found that this is not Toutatis but an astroid called STRACKEA(1019).
I have to say that at 0.5km in size and .829au from Earth at the time of the image it is very bright at magnitude 13.9.  Toutatis is 2.8km in size and sits at the same time only .328au from earth and is listed at 13.9.  Much bigger and closer but listed at the same magnitude?  In the sky at the time of the image the two astroids were 57 arc-min apart and I did not have Toutatis in the frame.  It sits about 15 arc-min north of the FOV. I will tonight if skys clear.   Thanks, Mike H.  

[drclay]

Hello Mike.....
As usual, excellent image.  For asteroid work, SOUTH needs to be down and pretty square if at all possible to aid in proper matching.  You are right, this is not Toutatis, but a much fainter cousin; at this time Toutatis is about magnitude 13.8 and considerably bright than this one you have captured (good job!).  By September 15, 4179 will be moving much faster against the star field, but at present, you will almost NO motion over a 45 minute period with this fast-approaching object.

It is heading right toward us by our line of sight.

Keep up the good work....how about trying 1685 Toro (in Auriga, morning skies, right now).  It is moving very fast, as is the NEW one that barely missed us:  2004 PT42 (mag. 13, nearly south of overhead at about 2 p.m.).

[Brian DeJong]

You are completely insane!!  That is just a speck in the image.  I dont know how you get something that small centered on the image plane.   Pretty cool though..