Asteroid 22 Kalliope 12-12-21

In the early morning of December 12th, just after midnight, asteroid 22 Kalliope was in the southeast sky, well positioned for imaging from my backyard. 22 Kalliope was inside the light dome of east Oklahoma City, but the seeing (i.e., the steadiness of the atmosphere) was good. Some of the images I captured of this minor planet follow. All were captured using a Meade SN-8 (203mm f/4) telescope and ZWO ASI224MC camera with UV/IR cut filter.

Wide View

Asteroid 22 Kalliope on 12 December 2021, at 06:01:39 and 06:26:49 UT. Field of view: 20×15 arcminutes. North is up. East is left. [1]

During this session, 22 Kalliope was traveling through the constellation Gemini, showing up well against this field of mostly fainter background stars. I measured its magnitude at 10.5. The Minor Planet Center predicted magnitude 10.4, and NASA’s JPL Horizons System predicted magnitude 10.37.

Wide View Animation

Asteroid 22 Kalliope moves through the field of view against a background of far distant stars over a 25 minute period. Field of view: 20×15 arcminutes. North is up. East is left [2]

This wide view animation gives a sense of 22 Kalliope’s motion across the sky. The animation is a 6-image time lapse sequence covering 25 minutes. On this night, 22 Kalliope was moving across the sky at the rate of 0.54 arcseconds per minute.

Zoomed In Animation

This is a cropped and enlarged portion of the wide view animation above. It gives a closer look at 22 Kalliope. North is up. East is left.

Asteroid 22 Kalliope is main belt asteroid with a diameter estimated as 168 km (104 miles). As a main belt asteroid, 22 Kalliope orbits the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Its orbital period is 4.96 years. At the time these images were captured, 22 Kalliope was 1.728 AU (258,505,100 km/160,627,600 miles) from Earth.

22 Kalliope doesn’t move through space alone. It is accompanied by a satellite asteroid named Linus. Linus is a good-sized asteroid in its own right with a diameter of 28 km (17 miles). Linus orbits 22 Kalliope at a distance of 1100 km (684 miles) with an orbital period of 3.6 days.[3]

Notes:

1. December 12, 2021, 06:01:39 and 06:26:49 UT. Stack of two images, each a stack of 10 frames at 30 seconds each (total 300s). Telescope: Meade SN-8 (203mm f/4). Camera: ZWO ASI224MC with UV/IR cut filter. Mount: Celestron CGEM.

2. December 12, 2021,06:01:39-06:26:49 UT. 25-minute, 6-image, animation sequence. Each image a stack of 10 frames at 30 seconds each (total 300 seconds). Telescope: Meade SN-8 (203mm f/4). Camera: ZWO ASI224MC with UV/IR cut filter. Mount: Celestron CGEM.

3. See, JPL Small-Body Database: 22 Kalliope, https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=22

Asteroid 22 Kalliope 12-12-21

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