Since I started tracking and imaging asteroid Bellona at the end of February as it passed through the stars of Cancer, I was fortunate enough to have had 60% of the nights clear enough to take images. The asteroid has just passed through the stars of the Beehive cluster (M44 Praesepe) and despite the moon being close by, I was able to complete my data set to show the parabolic path that the asteroid has taken over the past 40 days. A mosaic containing six stacked 2 minute exposures taken on each of the 23 nights was made using the “merge mosaic by coordinates” function of Pixinsight which blended the separate mosaic panels together. The asteroid’s position was annotated with a circle and dates highlighting the asteroid's path. Asteroid 28-Bellona is a 110 Km diameter rocky asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter taking around 4.63 years to make one orbit and is around magnitude 11. Data was acquired with an ASI 533MM Pro camera attached to a Sky-Watcher 80mm Esprit triplet refractor, fitted with a focal reducer. The scope was mounted on an iOptron CEM26 mount guided by a 30mm guide scope and ASI 462MC camera.
Click on an image top get a closer view
Chris Bowden
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