NEAR charts and data for Jan. 24 and 25
Dunham, David W (DunhamDW@space2.spacenet.jhuapl.edu)
Fri, 23 Jan 1998 19:20 -0500 (EST)
NEAR is already farther from the Earth than the Moon, so
further optical observations will be very difficult and are
unlikely. But just in case someone wants to try, I have generated
topocentric ephemerides for some major Southern-Hemisphere cities
and will post finder charts for them in a couple of hours at IOTA's
Web sites,
http://www.sky.net/~robinson/iotandx.htm and
http://www.anomalies.com/iota/splash.htm
The topocentric data are at 30-minute intervals during Jan. 24 and
25 U.T. An abbreviated geocentric ephemeris is below. The
magnitude has been adjusted to fit Spacewatch's 20th mag. estimate
at about 300,000 km when they observed NEAR after launch in 1996.
The departure phase angle is similarly unfavorable this time.
The following is an ephemeris for NEAR
Calendar Solar J2000 min.topo.
Date UTC Elong. R.A. Dec. Distance
Year Mo Day h m deg. deg. deg. km Mag.
1998 JAN 24 0:00 79.89 188.16638 -71.78267 429611 20.7
1998 JAN 24 2:00 80.06 187.62558 -71.81004 479803 20.9
1998 JAN 24 4:00 80.21 187.18471 -71.83123 529907 21.1
1998 JAN 24 6:00 80.33 186.81828 -71.84810 579940 21.3
1998 JAN 24 8:00 80.45 186.50881 -71.86184 629912 21.5
1998 JAN 24 10:00 80.55 186.24388 -71.87324 679831 21.7
1998 JAN 24 12:00 80.65 186.01447 -71.88286 729706 21.8
1998 JAN 24 15:00 80.78 185.72263 -71.89478 804444 22.0
1998 JAN 24 18:00 80.90 185.47944 -71.90446 879107 22.2
1998 JAN 24 21:00 81.01 185.27356 -71.91249 953706 22.4
1998 JAN 25 0:00 81.11 185.09693 -71.91929 1028248 22.6
1998 JAN 25 6:00 81.30 184.80939 -71.93022 1177191 22.9
1998 JAN 25 12:00 81.47 184.58503 -71.93869 1325973 23.1
1998 JAN 25 18:00 81.64 184.40487 -71.94552 1474621 23.3
1998 JAN 26 0:00 81.80 184.25688 -71.95118 1623152 23.6
David Dunham, NEAR Mission Design, 1998 Jan. 23, 22:30 U.T.