Happy Toutatis y'all. How are the nude nightcrawler roundup parties in you

area?

http://www.halfpasthuman.com/HPH_toutatis.htm

Happy Toutatis, y'all!

9.25.2004

Well, he's baaaack! And a Happy Toutatis Day to y'all.


Here at HPH we will be celebrating in the traditional fashion and have the bush-cutters all whetted up, the ritual oil ready, and are just itchin' for ol'Tout'er to arrive on the 29th. Happy as clam-heads at a goeduck dive.

Now, this is not to take anything away from the Reform holidays. If that is where your Toutatis is at, well more power to ya'. Obviously, the nude nicht-crawler round-ups are much more suited to the young at heart, and thick of skin here in the PNW of North America. And the harvest is always pitifully small. But, age and arthritis aside, there is much to be said for the Reform Toutatis holidays, it is just that we are not quite that energetic up here north of 45N where it can get cold on September nights. Still, though, more power to ya, and here's hoping for a good roundup this Passage.

but am seriously into a bag of peanut butter m&ms, just in case the astronomers got the math wrong. Four lunar distances doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room if somebody forgot to carry the one...

Luner eclipse this week should be nice, but we always seem to have clouds for times like that. Will head out to the lone prar-ie for the view if it is clear.

Good week for looking up.

Or, better yet, collide? :shrug:

http://www.spaceweather.com

ASTEROID FLYBY: Asteroid 4179 Toutatis is flying past Earth this week. There's no danger of a collision, but the weirdly tumbling 2-by-5 km space rock will be close enough (4 times the Earth-Moon distance on Sept. 29th) and bright enough (9th magnitude) to see through backyard telescopes.

The trick is finding it. Toutatis moves quickly among the stars and its position varies depending on the location of your backyard--a result of strong parallax. Sky & Telescope has published a set of finder charts for selected cities worldwide. There's also an online ephemeris from JPL for advanced observers.

During previous near-Earth flybys, astronomers pinged the space rock using NASA's Goldstone and Arecibo radars. They pinpointed Toutatis' orbit, showing that it poses no danger to Earth for centuries at least, and they mapped Toutatis' bizarre surface. Radar observations again this year aim to measure Toutatis' Yarkovsky acceleration.

to you too!


or was that stoney iron?