Rotation period

Forums Asteroids 2004 BL86 flyby Rotation period

#576789
Nick James
Participant

Mike,

I think the adopted rotation period is 2.6 hrs with a lightcure amplitude of around 0.2 mags. That means that I should have two rotations on the image set that I took on close approach night but I haven’t managed to find the time to do the initial analysis yet. Richard Miles has been helping me with the details and we hope to have something soon. The lightcurve may even show the effects of the small moon. Keep an eye on the ARPS page for more info.

You’re right that the motion was fast but the asteroid was so bright it was detectable with small instruments. Most of my images were made using a 72mm f/6 WO Megrez refractor and CCD tracked at sidereal rate. The wide field makes photometric reduction easier since there are lots of suitable reference stars visible.

Nick.