Asteroid 2020 SW Close Approach Time Lapse

Yes, a dot that represents a roughly 5~10m wide asteroid careening past Earth at thousands of miles per hour, missing Earth by less distance than our own geostationary satellites. I'd say that little dot is pretty significant.

damn I was hoping for an earth strike.

all the tards will be disappointed.

Thanks astromut! Know how much you put into keeping us informed and we really appreciate all the work.

What the fuck is wrong with this asshole?

Here is a time-lapse of the images that I took during this morning's webcast as asteroid 2020 SW approached Earth closer than our geosynchronous satellites. Note that the telescope is tracking the asteroid based on its orbit at the start of the webcast. As time goes on, it starts to drift because the orbit is changing under the influence of Earth's gravity. The tracking software I wrote for the telescope uses simple two body methods and does not account for how Earth's gravity alters the orbit. Other software I use to analyze the orbit of the asteroid does account for that, but it takes more computational power than I'm willing to sacrifice for real time tracking and imaging purposes. In the end, I think it's pretty cool that you can see Earth's gravity having an effect on the asteroid within the video.

1*
Lame video

Here is a time-lapse of the images that I took during this morning's webcast as asteroid 2020 SW approached Earth closer than our geosynchronous satellites. Note that the telescope is tracking the asteroid based on its orbit at the start of the webcast. As time goes on, it starts to drift because the orbit is changing under the influence of Earth's gravity. The tracking software I wrote for the telescope uses simple two body methods and does not account for how Earth's gravity alters the orbit. Other software I use to analyze the orbit of the asteroid does account for that, but it takes more computational power than I'm willing to sacrifice for real time tracking and imaging purposes. In the end, I think it's pretty cool that you can see Earth's gravity having an effect on the asteroid within the video.

so dumb, happens millions of times a week.

Whats the object on the right? A reflection . Lights on underside flash in sequence a few times

Is this one the Surveyor booster?