Asteroid 3200 Phaethon 16 Hours before Close Approach to Earth

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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Denver, Colorado

Date/Time of photo:

16 December 2017, 0709UT

Equipment:

11" SCT f/6.4 and STF-8300M CCD Camera

Description:

In these images Asteroid 3200 Phaethon was magnitude 10.6 moving to the southwest across Earth's night sky at 0.62 degrees per hour and was about 6.5 million miles from Earth. Phaethon was 16 hours from it's close approach to Earth. These images may show a very faint, very short (0.0055 degrees long), fan shaped debris tail above the asteroid's nucleus.