Solar System Objects
2 Pallas (Asteroid)
Asteroid 2 Pallas photographed by Pete Lawrence: the second asteroid ever discovered, 512 km across, on a steeply tilted orbit.
Target details
2 Pallas was the second asteroid ever found, after Ceres, and it remains one of the largest at about 512 km (318 miles) across – a little smaller than Vesta. It holds an estimated 7% of the asteroid belt's mass and is probably a leftover protoplanet. Its surface looks like carbon-rich chondrite meteorites. What makes Pallas unusual is its orbit: tilted 34.8° to the rest of the belt and nearly as stretched as Pluto's, which makes it hard for spacecraft to reach. It was considered as a possible planet in 2006, but its shape is too far from round.
Capture details
Data captured 21 April, 2019.
82x 3 minute exposures with Luminance filter.
Images captured between 11pm & 4am.
Total Exposure = 4.1 hours.
Equipment details
Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF
NEQ6 Pro
Atik 428EX Mono
Skywatcher ST-80
QHY5L-II
Processing details
This image was processed in Pixinsight & PIP.
Calibration in Pixinsight using Batch PreProcessing.
STF & Histogram Transformation - To Apply an AutoSTF.
Dynamic Crop - To remove black edges & integration artifacts. (Each Channel)
All images saved as JPEG and imported into PIPP.
Gamma set to 0.9.
Enabled Horizontal & Vertical Flip.
Framerate set to 10fps.
Exported as full resolution AVI & GIF, image on this website is GIF resized to 500px wide. The AVI is much smoother but unfortunately my website doesn't currently support videos.
Quick facts
- What is 2 Pallas?
- 2 Pallas was the second asteroid ever found, after Ceres, and it remains one of the largest at about 512 km (318 miles) across – a little smaller than Vesta. It holds an estimated 7% of the asteroid belt's mass and is probably a leftover protoplanet.
- When was this photo taken?
- 21 April 2019
- How long was the total exposure?
- 4.1 hours
- What equipment was used?
- Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF, NEQ6 Pro, Atik 428EX Mono, Skywatcher ST-80, QHY5L-II
- Where was it taken from?
- Lisburn, Northern Ireland.