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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Asteroid 2010 GA6 to make a close pass to Earth
08 April 2010

Astronomers have been tracking a 71 foot long asteroid, designated: 2010 GA6 - by the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Az. (Thank goodness for the survey... )

Plotting has determined that it will pass by the Earth at 6:06 pm, Chicago time at a distance of 223,000 miles - closer than the distance to the Moon.

But Asteroid 2010 AL30 came closer - passing within 80,000 miles this past January 2010.

NASA detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

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Usually, we get word of asteroid Earth path crossers (Apollo class), after the fact and it's good that the survey is picking these rocks early for advance warning.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Catalina Sky Survey

The story of Asteroid 2010 GA6 got me to wondering what kind of telescopes the fine people there in Arizona, (and elsewhere), are using to monitor space rocks.

The site is owned and operated by Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona and utilizes the following :

60" Cassegrain reflector

1.5-m reflector

0.5-m Schmidt

20 cm refractor

and a 1.0-m telescope.

More great data on the project here:

www.lpl.arizona.edu/css/index.html

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It would be a great trip and story to write for The Chicago Astronomer.

Thanks guys for your efforts!....

[Paulie pchris00]

That's a lot of tedious, under-appreciated work. Kudos to the astronomers down there.