Observers planning to collect data of Didymos in October 2022, following DART impact, will face difficult conditions (e.g. low galactic latitude, low lunar elongation, high non-sidereal rates of motion). To assess the feasibility of collecting photometry of sufficient quality from a given facility, we suggest test observations under analogous conditions as defined in the three windows described below. For more information see the DART Observing Plan
| Condition | Window 1 | Window 2 | Window 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Didymos analog conditions: Oct 1-11, Test filters: VR, r, i, z |
Didymos analog conditions: Oct 15-19, Test filters: VR, u, g, r, i, z |
Didymos analog conditions: Oct 20-27, Test filters: u, g3 |
|
| Moon Illumination (%) | >75 | 25→75 | <25 |
| Lunar Elongation (°) | <60 | 30→50 | >45 |
| Galactic Latitude (°) | >20 | <10 | <10 |
| Solar Elongation (°) | >90 | >90 | >90 |
| V Magnitude | 14.5-16.5 | 14.5-16.5 | 14.5-16.5 |
astorb.dat and astorb.dat.gz have permanently moved to
https://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/elgb/astorb.dat
and https://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/elgb/astorb.dat.gz,
respectively. FTP access is no longer supported.