[meteorite-list] Toutatis smasher and Vesta

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

The sky is being invaded by asteroids this month.  Only 
instead of buying tokens to destroy them in a video game, you 
just need a good pair of eyes or pair of binoculars, and clear 
skies.  

Here's a personal update on Vesta and some info on Toutatis 
which you can soon might see in a telescope (or a microscope), 
or binoculars in Microscopium:), the constellation that is.  
It then passes into Telescopium so take your pick.  We won't 
get another chance to see such a small space rock under the 
microscope, or anywhere else, except in our meteorite 
collections, probably for the rest of our lives, let alone 
with a telescope as well.  Funny?  For some of us I hope.  So 
read on if this sounds related enough to your passion, as you 
hold a piece of Vesta in your hands...

Sept. 13-14-15
Everything seemed wrong, but I was determined to see Vesta for 
the second time during this opposition.  The night before, 
September 13 I had seen it for the first time, through 16X 
consumer binoculars under reasonably dark skies a bit out of 
town, after twisting the arm of my own Vestal Virgin to 
accompany me and keep me alert as we drove.  (Did you know 
that the only high priestesses in Imperial Rome were the 
(max.) of 6 Vestal Virgins, whose responsibility was to keep 
the Vesta temple flame burning and be examples of good morals.)

But tonight by my own point of view was special.  Vesta at 
around 3:00 AM would pass less than a quarter of a degree from 
the bright star Omega-2 Aquarii (mag. 4.5) - an arc distance 
of only about 15 arc-minutes, the same arclength as half the 
diameter of the moon.

Wrong because I was on the top of my apartment building in the 
middle of the second or third largest metropolitan area in 
Mexico, amid sodium vapor lamps and a barrage of light 
pollutants from the densely inhabited neighborhood, in a city 
in love with light where only half of the electricity is 
actually charged to residents.  The limiting naked-eye 
magnitude was an embarrassing 2.3, terrible by nearly all 
standards.  Well, almost everything was not promising, but it 
was new Moon time, and the sky was basically clear and as dark 
as it get hereabouts ... but then there was that diffuse cloud 
to reckon with, patching the octant of the sky over Aquarius, 
where Vesta was hidden from sight.

It was somewhat of an anticlimax, as the weekend before I had 
traveled two states and several hundred kilometers to be under 
dark skies to observe Vesta on September 11, with absolutely 
dismal results: the perpetually clear desert skies managed to 
maintain a cloud cover all night.

So here I was, on September 15 at 3:00 AM, tire from all the 
recent travels and overnighters, and praying to the goddess of 
the hearth that the clouds would disappear and give me a view 
of the third largest confirmed meteorite parent body in the 
Solar System.  So I set up my camera, and by 3:05 a slight 
hole opened up and the very bright star Formalhaut peeked 
out.  Today I only had my five power opera glasses, but 
quickly focused upwards to find the somewhat dimmer Aquarian 
stars I refer to as the "reflected curves," six peer stars 
that with a little imagination appear to be bilaterally 
symmetrical reflected smooth curves (86, 89, 88 and 101, 99, 
98 Aqarii), all from 3.7 to 4.7 magnitude.  As I savored the 
moment in anticipation, the entire cloud almost mysteriously 
began to vanish, and their was the "Striking Cobra" in 
Aquarius (103, 104, 106, 107, 108 Aquarii etc.), the next 
group in line, and immediately coming into view as I moved the 
glasses up was Omega-2 Aquarii in the same field of view.  
Could I resolve Vesta under these conditions?  As my eyes 
became accustomed to the dishwater blackness I made out 
the "W" formed by HR 8987 (mag. 5.3), Omega-2 Aquarii (mag. 
4.5), Omega-1 Aquarii (5.0), and HR 8958 (mag. 5.6).  But 
where was Vesta, that handsome eucrite clad diogenite speckled 
quarry that so often has sent messages in a bottle to earth?  
As I looked at HR 8958 wondering whether bad luck would 
prevent me from seeing a half magnitude less bright Vesta, it 
was unquestionable clear: look at 8958 and Vesta becomes 
visible, then look at 8987, and there again was my goal, but 
look right at Vesta or Omega-2 and where was Vesta.  Well, 
astronomers know this "averted vision" allows one to see 
dimmer objects in the eyepiece - not looking directly at the 
goal. 

Not satisfied with an averted look I snapped the trigger of my 
camera for a 30 second exposure wondering if the glowing 
ribbons of the cloud and pervasive light soup would wash the 
photo out.  And as the exposure was in progress, I watched 
through the opera glasses and concentrated very hard on Omega-
2 and soon Vesta, too, was visible.  So I looked directly at 
it and could finally behold her.  Vesta looked somewhat bluish 
as I imagined that this was over 203 million kilometers away 
(just 1.37 times the Earth-Sun distance, not bad for an object 
between Mars and Jupiter!).  As soon as the exposure finished, 
I got ready for a second, astronomical favors were no longer 
being granted, and as quickly as the cloud had disappeared, a 
new one materialized over a broad swath of sky on the mountain 
beside my field of view and immediately covered nearly one 
full quadrant.  A half hour later, the situation was much 
worse, and I decided to go to sleep.

Drifting off to sleep, I was already making plans for one more 
date with Vesta, and then a trip to darker skies to see 
Toutatis on September 27 from 8:30 PM to 9:00 PM, the only 
real possibility from here, as it is low and sets early in the 
sky and the Harvest Moon will rise at 8:45 PM and interfere 
during all other opportunities.  Toutatis is a tumbling 
dumbbell shaped, three-kilometer along its great axis asteroid 
that will undoubtedly be the smallest "natural" astronomical 
mass I might ever see in-situ, with my own humble equipment in 
my lifetime, ignoring for a moment the potential for small 
undiscovered gaseous comets destined for our neighborhood, as 
it is the near earth object that most closely will visit the 
earth in the next 60 years.  Toutatis will arrive about 1.5 
million miles away.  Well, no doubt we will be hearing about 
Armageddon again from some even though our own gigantic Moon 
is one-fourth that distance away every day.  Well, I guess the 
predictability is somewhat comforting to those who worry about 
these things.  Vesta was good practice this time around, as 
Toutatis will be 9th magnitude.  That will call for the 16X 
binoculars again and much darker skies - and then be at the 
limit.  Hmmm, maybe a camp out to dark sky strewn field, date 
at 8:00 PM sharp, don't be late, with a mountain hiding the 
Moonrise, can help contemplate what holding a piece of 
Toutatis in my hand would be like, or to imagine the scene 
with such a tiny but would-be "deadly" space rock impacted...
Saludos, Doug