Minor Planet (7) Iris - Observations

I observed Minor Planet (7) Iris again tonight. In about 47 hours since my previous observation on the 14th November it moved by 30'34" as measured when the observed positions were plotted on Redshift 5.

Taurids

Yesterday while gazing at the sky for a short time at around 24:00UTC, I saw a spectacular meteor. It was bright white with a nice tail tinged with green. The object streaked from the direction of the Pleiades down by Alpha Ceti down towards Eridanus so I make it a Northern Taurid. A bit late since the maximum has passed so maybe I was lucky to see this one.

Minor Planet (7) Iris

Last night the asteroid Iris was in opposition in Aries, an opportunity not to be missed to observe my first asteroid. Magnitude was +6.8 so it would not be difficult to spot. Starhopping from the nearby Pleiades I found the target near the +8.7 star TYC 178400890-1. Iris was discovered by the astronomer J.R. Hind in 1847 so what better way to round off the night by watching R Leporis, Hind's Crimson Star, a magnificent Mira type variable with an unreal deep red colour.

Lunar Photography

This month I concentrated on lunar photography. The nights were quite clear and I managed some shots on both sides of full moon. Notably the 1st, 2nd, 7th and 9th November. I am posting three shots here but you can see them at full size and view more images at my Flickr site .