![]() +8.1, Juno crosses the border from Pisces into Aquarius on 3 September. On 1 September, 3 Juno is in Pisces, around 5˚ below the midpoint of a line between the Circlet and another famous asterism further to the west, the Water Jar. Minor planet 3 Juno reaches opposition on 8 September, a time when it appears to the southwest of the faint, yet surprisingly distinctive, Circlet asterism in Pisces. +4.8.Įxcitingly, it’ll be well positioned for UK observing over this entire period. +6.6.Īs it performs its closest approach to Earth on 2 February 2023, it’s predicted to be a naked-eye object at mag. +7.6 by the end of December 2022.Īt perihelion on 13 January 2023, the comet is predicted to reach mag. +9.4, brightening to binocular range at mag. Its location in Corona Borealis means it’s best seen in the evening sky, shifting to the morning sky as we head through November and on towards the end of the year.Īt the end of November C/2022 E3 is expected to appear around mag. +11.7, brightening by one magnitude through the month. Its brightness should increase as it approaches perihelion, due to its close proximity to the Sun, and as the distance between us and the comet reduces through to the start of February.Īt the start of October, C/2022 E3 is expected to be around mag. Its closest approach to Earth is on 2 February 2023, the distance between us and the comet dropping to 0.29 AU or 44 million kilometres. It’s due to reach perihelion on 13 January 2023 when it will lie 1.11 AU from the Sun. Its orbit, combined with the relative motion of Earth, has it performing a south-pointing loop into Serpens Caput before heading north out of the semicircle of stars which forms the distinctive constellation of the Northern Crown.Ĭ/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered on 2 March 2022 using a 48-inch telescope at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at Mount Palomar Observatory, California. Credit: Pete LawrenceĪs brightening comet C/2017 K2 PanSTARRS has now moved too far south to be followed from the UK, all eyes will be turning to C/2022 E3 (ZTF), a comet currently in Corona Borealis. October 2022 Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)Ĭomet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will dip into and out of Serpens Caput in October 2022. It was discovered by the prolific Austrian asteroid hunter, Johann Palisa in 1892 and is named after Bamberg, a town in southern Germany. It’s carbon-rich makeup gives it a low reflectivity of just 6%. +8.1 in September of that year.īamberga rotates once every 29.43 hours, a long period for such a large asteroid. +8.0 when conditions are favourable, allowing it to become the brightest of its class – Bamberga being a C-type, carbon-rich asteroid.įavourable, near-perihelion oppositions occur with a periodicity of 22 years, and the next is due in 2035 when the asteroid will reach mag. This creates a considerable variation in its opposition magnitude, reaching mag. It also has an eccentric orbit that takes it out as far as 3.59 AU from the Sun and in as close as 1.77 AU. With a mean diameter of 227km, it’s in the top 20 largest asteroids within the main belt. +9.2, increasing fractionally to +9.1 in the middle of the month.ĭespite being the 324th officially recognised asteroid, Bamberga is quite large. Over this period its brightness hardly varies, starting and ending the month at mag. It ends the month a degree east and very slightly south of Algol. +3.8 Nu (ν) Persei and eclipsing binary Algol (Beta (β) Persei).ģ24 Bamberga begins the month 20 arcminutes southwest of Nu Persei, thereafter heading west and very gently north, before curving southwest towards the quadrilateral of stars formed by Algol, Omega (ω), Pi (≠) and Rho (ρ) Persei. It is fortuitously well placed at the moment, the asteroid describing a north-bowing arc between mag. Credit: Pete LawrenceĪsteroid 324 Bamberga reaches opposition on 21 November, shining at 9th magnitude in the constellation of Perseus. Chart showing the location of asteroid 324 Bamberga in November 2022. ![]()
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