Near earth astroid 1998 WT24 (near NGC891), 16 december 2001


Near earth astroid 1998 WT24 on 16 december 2001, 21:00-22:10 UT

This astroid reached its smallest distance to the earth (0.013AU) on december 15th. These images are taken with the FTT1010-M camera equipped with a F=300mm telelens, diapraghm: 5.5.
Starting 21:00 UT, 11 images with 1 minute exposure were taken with an interval of 7 minutes. Due to the small distance the apparent movement of the astroid is large and during the 1 minute exposure the astroid is revealed as a small blurred spot which, within the 7 minutes interval, significantly moves in the field of view (which measures 2.0x1.5 degrees). In the upper right corner NGC891 is visible.
The image below is a composite of all 11 images. NGC891 is shown with enhanced intensity.