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Observation by Nick James: Surveyor 2 Centaur stage

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2020 Nov 30 - 23:01

Uploaded

2020 Nov 30 - 23:37

Objects

Spacecraft

Planetarium overlay









Constellation

Gemini

Field centre

RA: 07h39m
Dec: +32°15'
Position angle: -0°31'

Field size

0°32' × 0°25'

Equipment
  • Celestron HD11 + FLI6303
Exposure

60s

Location

Chelmsford, UK

Target name

2020 SO

Title

Surveyor 2 Centaur stage

About this image

The trail in the centre of this image is the Centaur upper stage of the Atlas Centaur that launched Surveyor 2 in 1966. The spacecraft itself crashed into the Moon due to a thruster failure but the Centaur escaped the Earth-Moon system and headed off round the Sun. It was rediscovered by PanSTARRS on 2020 September 17 and designated 2020 SO when it was thought to be a natural object. It is currently in an unstable Earth orbit and makes its closest tomorrow morning (Dec 1). At the time this image was taken it was 96000 km away and moving at 4 arcsecs/second. It is tumbling and flashing with a period of around 9s. There is a timelapse here made up of 5s exposures.

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