The Trio in Leo and 8 Flora |
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| For a few nights in April 2025 the view of the
Trio in Leo was marked by the visitation of an interloper,
specifically asteroid 8 Flora. The Trio in Leo is a photogenic and oft-imaged and observed galaxy grouping discussed elsewhere. According to Wikipedia, 8 Flora is the innermost large asteroid with an average diameter of approximately 146km or 91 miles). I was alerted to this event by a friend and local fellow astronomer. Imaging conditions were complicated by the presence of a Full Moon. But I was able to gather enough data for a reasonable result. And what's better than showing an image with an asteroid streak? A little movie showing the asteroid moving through the field of view! This movie is cropped around the asteroid's path; NGC 3628 can be faintly seen to the upper right of the asteroid (the movie is rotated 180 degrees from the static image). The Moon image was captured using the same equipment for the galaxies and is a stack of video frames captured using FireCapture and stacked using AutoStakkert! |
| Constellation: Leo |
| When Visible: Feburary - July |
| Distance: 35 Million Light-years (galaxies). 314 million kilometers (asteroid at the time of imaging) |
| Date: April 12/13, 2025 |
| Location: West Chester, Ohio |
| Exposure Details: RGB: 24 x 5 Minutes binned 1x1 |
| Equipment Used: Astr-Physics Stowaway (92mm f/6.65 refractor) with flattener on an Astro-Physics AP1200GTO mount. ZWO ASI2600MC (one-shot-color camera)with ZWO 5-position filter wheel. Antlia RGB filter. |
| Acquisition Software : MaximDL 6, TheSkyX, |
| Processing Software: MaximDL, Photoshop CS, Pixinsight, IrFanView |