Astronomer Tracking Instructions For The ELEnin Comet/Dwarf Star

So in your world, "shill" means accurate and correct?

I watched and understood that testing was taking place.
I thought it was cool you'd allow people to peek in on testing sessions and I hope you continue.

What link?

Now we are getting somewhere. Look, I am new to this sight. Came here from a link, because I felt the Sun was acting odd.

Thread: Did the Sun seem extra bright today to anybody else?

I'm not attacking anybody, but engaging in discussions to help me find my answer. All this talk of comets, asteroids, planets, dwarfs, etc. is amusing at best.

In 1980 I took Astronomy 101 in college. Got an "A". Received a 97 on the final. Missed a simple term for 3 points. :)

I had access to the keys of the schools 16" telescope. Yep, located and viewed M13 my first attempt at 3AM. (easy find) Those were the days...

[link to news.mst.edu]

I have since then left the stars and went into sales. Not sure if that helped me any - lol. So, alas, fanfare for the common man.

^^ sh1llb0t.

[link to ssd.jpl.nasa.gov]

[link to ssd.jpl.nasa.gov]

This should keep you up to date.

Thanks!

NP.

I ran that software to generate this result for Elenin (C/2010 X1) using the Sun as the center:

2455814.500000000 = A.D. 2011-Sep-10 00:00:00.0000 (CT)
QR= 4.824691935923406E-01

2455815.500000000 = A.D. 2011-Sep-11 00:00:00.0000 (CT)
QR= 4.824691934720136E-01

2455816.500000000 = A.D. 2011-Sep-12 00:00:00.0000 (CT)
QR= 4.824691937901215E-01

Symbol meaning [1 AU=149597870.691 km, 1 day=86400.0 s]:
QR Periapsis distance, q (AU)

How did I do?

I didn't see a link to whatever software you're using. Whatever you use needs to account for the gravitational perturbations of the planets, and you need to examine the actual predicted time of perihelion, not just midnight on each successive day. Based on the fact that it was mentioned, I'll assume you're using JPL HORIZONS software, which is very good at that. Yes, Elenin will be closer to the sun at midnight on September 11th than midnight september 10th, but that does NOT mean that perihelion occurred on September 11th. In fact, perihelion has already happened before the 11th, it happens on September 10th. In fact, to be specific, perihelion occurs at 17:28 GMT on September 10th.

Last, but not least, stating the periapsis distance is not the same as establishing the time of periapsis. QR just tells you the predicted periapsis distance as dictated by the initial heliocentric ecliptic osculating elements (not the current distance of the target from the sun), it does not factor into account all the perturbers and is just an instantaneous value. That it changes on each day only shows you how much of an effect those perturbers have. You need to look at the delta values and see the point at which they reverse and deltadot goes from negative to positive.

Last Edited by Astromut on 04/27/2011 12:38 AM

Like I said



A mystery, wrapped in an enigma, coated in a conundrum, basted with a paradox and garnished with uncertainty…

Ok, what does that have to do with Elenin? I mean, this kind of goes to the Tyche hypothesis, but you don't need Tyche for Elenin to be perturbed into the inner solar system. Galactic tidal forces and perturbations from stars that previously passed close to our solar system are enough to cause that. The most exciting Sedna theory, imho, is that our sun gravitationally captured it from just such a passing star. That would make it an extra-solar object.

@Astronut: Have you made a Foto of Elenin with your Telescope?

I'm trying to understand the orbit of Elenin by studying Sedna's highly eccentric orbit. The paper...



...is fascinating to me.

[link to iopscience.iop.org]

Last Edited by Bridge of Sighs on 04/29/2011 08:13 PM

Yes, I have.
[link to i319.photobucket.com]
I found it to be exactly where it should have been according to its orbital elements. It is incredibly faint, which would not be the case if it were a brown dwarf star. The image may not look like much to the untrained eye, but this camera exchanges the noise level for speed when imaging deep space objects. It detects within seconds what takes most astronomical CCDs minutes to record (the trade-off being the noise level of the image) and it does so using infrared as well as visible light.

very nice Sir, .. any enhancements like false color.. in the works?



Last Edited by RPHUNTER on 05/03/2011 03:13 AM

Err, no, it's comet, not a dwarf. I apologize if I was incoherent as I am exhausted, but what I meant to say was that if it were a brown dwarf, it wouldn't be nearly this dim, therefore it can't be a brown dwarf. It matches the position predicted by Elenin's orbital elements perfectly (astrometry performed on the un-enhanced image):
[link to flickr.com]

Thanks! Technically this camera always puts out "false" color as it perceives light beyond the visible spectrum (into infrared, probably into UV as well but I'd have to check the CCD specs again for the latter) and beyond what our eyes can see.

Last Edited by Astromut on 05/03/2011 03:23 AM

A shill is EASY to spot. You are easy to spot. I have watched you for some time. Your a shill.

Circular reasoning and you didn't answer my question.

so there will be no impact this fall? everything will be fine and dandy?

Thanks OP I now have it and three moons rotating. Sorry the Shillhead is giving you so much grief. I don't think they more than guess at the turn without knowing the mass. Anybody can predict a constant curve but a gravity window I think not. I bet the turn will tell them how big it is. Thanks again.

Terral, What's at 11h 20m 65s 02 31 24? A Ferringi vessel no less? Could it be a victum of the big ELE? Thanks again.

It seems he used the online HORIZONS system from jpl. This is the correct way of doing it. You can use it to perturb the orbit for a given date and then either:

* directly let it calculate RA/DEC for your location
or
* let it calculate Kepler elements for the perturbed osculating orbit at the given date to feed them into some planetarium software. There exists an online parser that can transform the cryptic output (the ELEMENTS) of the HORIZONS system directly into the format needed for stellarium. Look here: [link to projects.familie-steinel.de]

Please read the rest of my post; I went ahead and assumed he was using horizons. QR does not tell you the perihelion date though. You need to look at the delta and delta-dot figures.

Why are the pins getting closer together on the google sky maps??? is the comet slowing down???

i suspect the guy who supposedly found this object is a russian govt agent posing as an amateur astronomer.