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Peter Birtwhistle flagged that asteroid 1997 NC1 will be flying by on 27th June at 11:15 UTC.
There’s an ESA fact sheet here: https://neo.ssa.esa.int/documents/d/guest/close-approach-fact-sheet-for-asteroid-152637-1997nc1-version-1-0-
I got a few snaps via iTel 24 (Sierra) a few hours ago (midpoint 20260623 1016 UT).
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The latest ephemeris can be generated by using:
https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html
or
https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/app.html#/
Photometry – the ARPS section is collating very good light curves to determine its period of rotation
https://groups.io/g/ARPS/message/939
Astrometry – observers are submitting astrometry and photometry to the MPC
https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%E2%9C%93&object_id=152637
Occultations – 4 occultations of stars have been observed (in USA, Poland and Spain) providing high-quality astrometry of the asteroid
https://ukoccultations.groups.io/g/main/message/5005
Goldstone radar is tracking it
https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/1997nc1.2026.goldstone.planning.html
Timelapse recordings will be nice souvenirs of its flyby. Tonight (Jun 26) its sky motion is 43 arcsec / minute and at mag 10 is a fine sight moving against the rich star fields.
In contrast to living in the digital world, view it in your eyepiece and experience the solar system in motion. Catch it now before it dives into southern skies on Sunday.
Alex.
I completely agree with you Alex – I’ll be setting up my SCT for visual tonight!
The sun only gets about 9 degrees below the horizon here (Newcastle upon Tyne) mid summer, but as you say NC1 is bright enough. And nicely placed in Oph for a pleasing background view.
Unfortunately conditions were bad last night where I am. The storm clouds cleared but mist formed and the transparency was poor between 11pm and midnight. Hoping for better this evening. I see Nick James had reasonable enough conditions.
I only managed to get a short run on the asteroid last night. A preliminary lightcurve from Tycho attached.
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I got a series of Sloan r’ frames of it last night although conditions were poor with lots of drifting cloud:
https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20260628_095628_79afe0e2787a87ee
I’ll measure the photometry later. By tonight it will probably be too far south for me to get anything useful.
Asteroidal motion from 22.06 to 23.06 UT on June 26th. x110 30 sec exposures with Seestar S30 Pro.
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