Monday 6 August 2007

2007 July notes: Floods, 2007 DT103, 2007 MB4 and recovery of 2001 RV17, 2005 XW77 and 2003 CG11

The continued bad weather here culminated in flash flooding on 20th July which left us with two rooms under water, but fortunately the observatory stayed dry. Since then the weather has noticably improved with a run of good clear nights in the last week of the month.

During the month three NEOs were recovered at their second apparition - 2001 RV17 at the beginning of the month with 2005 XW77 and 2003 CG11 towards the end, both of those two in collaboration with Luca Buzzi at the Schiaparelli Observatory in Italy.

A couple of moderately fast movers were followed over several nights - 2007 DT103 which was detected at the end of the month by RADAR from Goldstone and found to be a binary, and 2007 MB4 that passed at about 8 Lunar Distances on July 5th.