SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Mike Olason
Location of Photo:
Tucson, Arizona
Date/Time of photo:
2024 December 4, 0258UT
Equipment:
50mm F/5 Refractor and IMX462 Camera
Description:
1200 foot wide Asteroid 2020 XR made its close approach to Earth at 0526UT on 2024 December 4 at a distance of 1.37 million miles moving at 27,500 miles per hour. These images were taken 2.5 hours before the close approach above the southern horizon over Tucson, Arizona. The image on the left is a composite of 9 images each 10 seconds long with a 20 second interval between each image. The image shows the circled asteroid as a line of white dots that are moving from the upper right to the lower left of the image. The 10 second image on the left taken thru a green filter was used to calculate the asteroids magnitude 13.1 and position at 0257UT. The asteroid was moving 69" per minute at a position angle of 124 degrees as observed from Earth per JPL ephemeris.
