What I’ve observed so far
526 observations of 355 unique objects, including:
161 galaxies
78 nebulae
87 star clusters
Plus 3 asteroids, 1 asteroid occultation, 1 comet, 1 planetary conjunction, 3 exoplanet transits, and a lunar eclipse!
Check out my latest livestream
Recent observations
Citizen Science observations
Exoplanet Qatar-8b
February 18, 2022
Qatar-8 b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a G-type star. Its mass is 0.371 Jupiters, it takes 3.7 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.0474 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2019.
Asteroid 2001 SN263
March 1, 2022
153591 (2001 SN263) is a mid-sized asteroid whose orbit approaches the orbit of Earth but does not cross it. NASA JPL has classified 2001 SN263 as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid" due to its predicted close pass(es) with Earth.
2001 SN263 orbits the sun every 1,020 days (2.79 years), coming as close as 1.03 AU and reaching as far as 2.94 AU from the sun. 2001 SN263 is about 2.0 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to Mount Everest.
The rotation of 2001 SN263 has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 3.42 hours.
Exoplanet TOI 3799.01
March 8, 2022
7 of us re-detected TOI 3799.01 on March 8, 2022 after the NASA TESS group revised the planet candidate's orbital period (by ~15 minutes). That revision was partially due to 2 other citizen scientists whose detection of TOI 3799.01’s transit on January 25 was 1.5 hours later than originally predicted. In our March re-detection, the planet came in right on time according to the new orbit. Science in action!
Asteroid 7335 (1989 JA)
May 18-25, 2022
Asteroid 7335 (1989 JA) is a big one. At a whopping 1 kilometer in diameter, an impact with Earth could be enough to endanger an entire continent. Compare that to the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor incident: An asteroid just 20 meters wide exploded 30 kilometers above the ground, and the resulting shock wave from that relatively puny rock nevertheless injured 1,500 people. It’s estimated that asteroids as big as 7335 (1989 JA) collide with Earth once every 500,000 years, on average — releasing 53,000 kilotons of energy, the equivalent of over 3,500 Hiroshima atomic bombs. It’s definitely a target to keep a close eye on!
“Largest Asteroid Of The Year Will Zoom Past Earth This Week – Here’s How To Watch” (iflscience.com)
Comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS)
June 13, 2022
C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS) is an Oort cloud comet with a coma nearly the diameter of Jupiter. It was discovered in May 2017 and was at the time the furthest active comet at 16 AU from the Sun.
Occultation of asteroid (24459) 2000 RF103
June 13, 2022
Asteroid 2000 RF103 is a 28.3 km diameter Jupiter Trojan asteroid discovered in 2000 by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search (LONEOS) program. There was only a 3% chance I'd observe this occultation given the width of the uncertainty region and the size of the asteroid. Watch this video of the occultation.
Asteroid 25916 (2001CP44)
July 1, 2022
25916 (2001CP44) is 5.68km diameter Amor asteroid. Its orbit is entirely outside of Earth’s, so their paths never directly cross. The last close approach this asteriod had with the Earth was in 2018 and it was still >100 lunar distances away. It’s big but thankfully not very close.
Occultation by Saturn’s moon Titan
July 9, 2022
In the early morning of July 9th, Titan occulted an 8th magnitude star for as long as 5 minutes (near the center line). The event was visible in most of the continental US, Mexico, Central America, and islands in the Caribbean. In addition to the normal occultation, anyone near the central line stood a chance at seeing something called a “central flash” which resulted from Titan’s atmosphere bending light from the star (that is occulted) into the observer’s line of sight. The next bright star occultation by Titan will occur in 2048…in Antarctica.
I was approximately 2 km outside the predicted path but may have possibly caught the very edge of the occultation at the end of my observation. See for yourself!