Well, I've been busy getting things paperwork done for my new job, but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you how things went Tuesday. Simply put, not much happened. There was an all-staff meeting that morning so I was shown how to use the register and ended up being left to watch the First Light Bookstore for two and a half hours, so I didn't have time to attempt to see the asteroid while minding the store. Then clouds rolled in around lunch time when I was relieved, and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon.
From the information I gleaned, I don't think it would have been possible to see the asteroid at closest approach (at 1:28 PM here) anyway. I may make an attempt to see it Saturday night when I'm up there for the UAC night as it may still be visible, but we'll see.
And boy, I'd heard that the First Light Bookstore had one of the highest profit-to-square-footage ratios of any store in Hawaiʻi, but it wasn't till I was tending the register that I really realized just how much people often spend of souvenirs.
How would you actually see the astroid? Besides, obviously, with a telescope of some sort
ReplyDeleteSince it was only about magnitude 11 at brightest -- over a hundred times fainter than can be seen with the naked eye -- a 6- to 8-inch telescope would be the only way to see it. Unfortunately, since its closest approach was at 1:28 in the afternoon, not even a much stronger telescope would have been able to pick it out from the sky glow.
ReplyDeleteI mostly came up because I was asked and in case people had questions, not because I had any real hope of seeing it. And it also turns out pretty much no one had any questions, so there wasn't all that much point to it.