BepiColombo Earth Flyby
ESA’s BepiColombo mission is on its way to Mercury. To get there it will pass close to Earth on 10th April at 04:25 UTC at a low altitude of 12,700 km!
The visit will modify BepiColombo’s trajectory and send it towards Mercury at the right velocity to arrive safely. The small spacecraft will be observable from Europe, Africa and the American continent with small telescopes. It will be as bright as a +8 magnitude star but it will move as fast as only Nearth Earth Asteroids (NEOs) and some satellites do.
ESA is seeking observations of this flyby with a telescope. Images of BepiColombo on its close passage to Earth will contribute to the mission and will demonstrate how small telescopes can contribute to find small objects coming close to Earth! We’d also like to see selfies and images or videos of you making observations. If you are an amateur astronomer and want to observe this flyby here is a link of useful resources:
https://bepicolombo.iaps.inaf.it/
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/bepicolombo-flyby/earthflyby
https://heavens-above.com/Flyby/Flyby.aspx
BepiColombo Flyby Photo Contest
Have you observed BepiColombo, or do you have selfies, images or animations taken during the flyby? You can share your observations on Flickr or upload your images below and we will add them to the BepiColombo Earth Flyby Gallery!
An expert panel will select:
- The last glimpse – the last image showing reflections from BepiColombo.
- The best glimpse – the nicest or most appealing image.
- The best track – the best track of BepiColombo during its passage above the horizon.
The contest deadline is set for Sunday 19 April – 23:59 CEST.
The three winning images will be presented on the web pages of ESA’s Science Directorate and the observers will receive a BepiColombo shape model (1:80). More details of the photo contest.
If you have an image or animation that is too big to upload, you can send it by WeTransfer to aheward@europlanet-society.org.
Credit: KURASHIKI SCIENCE CENTER
Location of image or observation: Hattoji, Okayama, Japan ( 134d15m6s [E], 34d54m50.0s [N], Altitude: 376m )
Time of image or observation: 11:57 – 12:09 UTC, 10 April 2020
Time zone: GMT+9 JST
Description: Image taken by Kazuhisa Mishima (Planetarium Director)
Telescope: Takahashi Epsilon E-180ED Astrograph（f=500mm）
Camera: NIKON D850 (ISO6400)
Exposure: 30 sec. x 19
Name: Go Murakami and Seiko Takagi (Credit: JAXA/Hokkaido Univ.)
Location of image or observation: 157-1 Nisshin, Nayoro-shi, Hokkaido 096-0066, Japan
Time of image or observation: 19:45-19:59 on 10 April 2020 (JST)
Time zone: JST
Social media contacts: Twitter: @gomuramura
About your image or observation: Taken by using Pirka Telescope (1.6 m) of Hokkaido University
V-band
10sec exposure each, 70 images
Name: Nayoro Observatory, Hokkaido University
Location of image or observation: 142 28 58.01 E, 44 22 25.10 N
Time of image or observation: 2020 April 19.48402 UT
Time zone: Japan Standard Time (JST)
Social media contacts: @kitasubaru
Description: The image was taken using the 1.6-m Pirka telescope + MSI (unfiltered) with the exposure time of 120 sec.
Name: Hiroyuki Naito, Nayoro Observatory
Location of image or observation: 142 28 58.01 E, 44 22 25.10 N
Time of image or observation: 2020 April 19.51414 UT
Time zone: Japan Standard Time (JST)
Social media contacts: @kitasubaru
Description: Using a 40-cm Chura telescope + unfiltered CCD camera (STL-1001E).
The image is combined with 30 frames (a total exposure time is 30 minutes).
Credit: Rikubetsu Space and Science Museum
Location of image or observation: Uenbetsu Rikubetu-cho,Ashoro-gun,Hokkaido,Japan (E 143.770 N 43.453)
Time of image or observation: 2020/04/19 12:43:19~13:18:23(UT)
Time zone: Japan(+9)
Social media contacts: @ginganomori_obs
About your image or observation: 1.15m f/5.6 Ritchey-Chretien telescope and Canon EOS 6D. Stack of 32x 60-second exposures.
Name: Yasuo Sano
Location of image or observation: Nyoro Hokkaido Japan, E 142.446890 N 44.353290
Time of image or observation: 2020/04/10 11h02m49s(UT) – 11h09m17s(UT)
Time zone: UTC + 9
Twitter Handle name 佐野康男
About your image or observation: SCT-0.36m FL3850mm F11, 10secX34 , CCD FLI ML1001E
Credit: Yasuo Sano
Location of image or observation: Nyoro Hokkaido Japan, E 142.446890 N 44.353290
Time of image or observation: 2020/04/10 10h13m46s(UT) – 10h19m04s(UT)
Time zone: UTC + 9
Twitter Handle name 佐野康男
About your image or observation:SCT-0.36 m FL3850mm F11, 5secX48 , CCD FLI ML1001E
Credit: T. Oribe @ Saji Observatory
Location of image or observation: N35 20 31 E134 07 10
Time of image or observation: 2020 04 10.4868 UT, 2020 04 11.4738 UT, 2020 04 14.4651 UT, 2020 04 16.5468 UT
Time zone: +9h
About your image or observation: 1.03-m reflector F4.6, STL-11000M, V filter
Name: Masanori Mizutani
Location of image or observation: E 134.25 N 34.91 Okayama Japan
Time of image or observation: 2020 04 10 10:52 ～ 12:08 UT
Time zone: UT + 9:00
Social media contacts: Nozomigaoka Observatory
About your image or observation: OTA : 200mmRC 1600mm
Mount: Takahashi EM-400
Camera: MoravianG2 KAF 8300
Name: Yuji Tanaka
Location of image or observation: Koryou-cho, Kitakatsuragi-gun, Nara, Japan
Time of image or observation: 2020′ 04/10 20:40:36
Time zone: JST
About your image or observation: Telescope: 0.20m Reflector F3.8 (C8N + Closeup lens AC No.4)
Camera: ASI174MM
Name: Northolt Branch Observatories
Location of image or observation: 51.554679, -0.372070
Time of image or observation: 10-04-2020 21:08-21:20 UTC
Time zone: British Summer Time (GMT+1)
Social media contacts: Twitter: @NBObservatories, Facebook: www.facebook.com/NBObservatories/
About your image or observation: BepiColombo, imaged on the evening of April 11th, using Northolt Branch Observatories’ 0.25m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien telescope and QHY42 CMOS camera.
The data collected for this image, even though it was submitted to the Minor Planet Center as artificial satellite 2018-080A (BepiColombo’s official designation), led to it being mistaken for a Near Earth asteroid. The “discovery”, announced by the Minor Planet Center as asteroid 2020 GL2, was retracted soon after (https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K20/K20G97.html).
This was the third time a spacecraft had been mistakenly announced as a “new asteroid” during an Earth flyby, after Rosetta a.k.a. 2007 VN84 and Gaia a.k.a. 2015 HP116. Incidentally, all three of these are ESA missions.
Name: Hiroki Fukuyama
Location of image or observation: N34.69 E135.76
Time of image or observation: 2020/4/10 10:48:25(UT) 19:48:25(JST)
Time zone: Japan(+9)
Description: Celestron C8+Meade F3.3 FocalReducer+Vixen GP2 Equipmount
ZWO ASI174MC Gain254 3.0s×4 flames
Name: Gianluca Masi
Location of image or observation: Ceccano (FR), ITALY
Time of image or observation: 10 Apr. 2020, 03:40:32 UTC
Time zone: GMT+2 DST
Description: I managed to track the exciting BepiColombi flyby. Incredibly, we grabbed the spacecraft while it was imaging planet Earth and our telescope location, exactly at the same time.
The image puts together several pieces. First of all, we have an image of our planet captured by BepiColombo, with parts of the probe in the foreground. It is part of a stunning movie released by the European Space Agency (ESA) and by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). In this image, we indicated with an arrow where the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP) is placed on the Earth (Central Italy). On the left, there is a snapshot of the simulated approach of the probe, again from ESA. On the bottom left, you see an image of BepiColombo we captured with our robotic telescope, where the spacecraft is indicated by an arrow. Incredibly, both the images (the Earth by BepiColombo and BepiColombo by the Virtual Telescope on Earth) were taken at the very same time: 10 Apr. 2020, 03:40:32 UTC. Of course the snapshot from the simulator comes from the same moment. We find this to be a truly inspiring mutual glance, bringing us a very special feeling of global connection, so precious in the critical moment we are facing all together. Godspeed, BepiColombo!
Credit: Kenichi Shirakami
Location of image or observation: N:34.9140231 E:134.2515778
Time of image or observation: 11:05:00-11:40:00
Time zone: UT
Facebook: Kenichi Shirakami
Description: TAKAHASHI ε-250 FL:854mm F3.4
Canon EOS 60Da ISO6400
70set of 28sec exp. + 2sec interval
70 flames composite
Credit: KURASHIKI SCIENCE CENTER
Location of image or observation: Hattoji, Okayama, Japan ( 134d15m6s [E], 34d54m50.0s [N], Altitude: 376m )
Time of image or observation: 11:10:15 – 11:33:58 UTC, 10 April 2020
Time zone: GMT+9 JST
Description: Image taken by Kazuhisa Mishima (Planetarium Director)
Telescope: Takahashi Epsilon E-180ED Astrograph（f=500mm）
Camera: NIKON D850 (ISO6400)
Exposure: 30 x 40 sec.
Name: Cyprien Pouzenc
Location of image or observation: Lat: 44° 00′, Long: 5° 29′
Time of image or observation: 2020-04-10, from 20:24 TU to 22:23 TU
Time zone: Paris/France
Description: Instrument: télescope ASA Astrograph 10N 254 mm F/3,6
Camera: Sbig STL11K
Exposure: 10 min. by unit (binning 1×1)
Processing in Siril and Darktable.
Asteroid (4904) Makio is on the picture too.
Full-size picture: https://www.cypouz.com/sites/default/files/imagerie/200410_-_BepiColombo_Pollux.jpg
Crop on BepiColombo: https://www.cypouz.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/imagerie/200410_-_bepicolombo_-_pollux_-_crop_1.jpg
Crop on (4904) Makio: https://www.cypouz.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/imagerie/200410_-_bepicolombo_-_pollux_-_crop_2.jpg
Webpage: https://www.cypouz.com/imagerie/200410/bepicolombo-4904-makio
Credit: Northolt Branch Observatories
Location of image or observation: 51.554679, -0.372070
Time of image or observation: 11-04-2020 21:18-21:34 UT
Time zone: British Summer Time (GMT+1)
Social media contacts: Twitter: @NBObservatories, Facebook: www.facebook.com/NBObservatories/
Description: We used the observatories’ 0.25m Ritchey-Chretien and QHY42 CMOS camera to collect further astrometry of the spacecraft as it moves away from Earth. Each image in the sequence is a stack of 15x 10-second exposures, stacked on the spacecraft’s apparent motion using synthetic tracking.
24 hours after our last observations, and about 40 hours after the flyby, BepiColombo has faded to 16.9 mag.
Name: Nick James
Location of image or observation: 51 44′ N 0 29′ E
Time of image or observation: 2020-04-11 21:54
Time zone: UTC
Social media contacts: www.nickdjames.com
Description: Image obtained using a HD11 SCT, FLI6303 camera and measured in Astrometrica. Astrometry from the image:
BEPICO KC2020 04 11.91010 09 02 55.12 +04 37 09.7 16.6 R 970
BEPICO KC2020 04 11.91547 09 02 50.88 +04 37 23.1 16.9 R 970
Name: Sergei Schmalz
Location of image or observation: Astronomical Observatory of Castelgrande (MPC code L28), latitude = 40.817566, longitude = 15.463387, altitude = 1256.21
Time of image or observation: April 10, 2020 between 18:59:27 UT and 20:18:30 UT
Time zone: CET
Twitter: @SergeiSchmalz
Description: BepiColombo was observed by me on April 10, 2020 at the Astronomical Observatory of Castelgrande (MPC code L28) in Italy with a 22-cm telescope equipped with a FLI ML 09000 CCD camera; the observation lasted from 18:25:00 till 00:16:32. The presented animation is made of a selection of 49 subsequent images with exposure time of 15 seconds each. Original FITS images were fully calibrated in a typical procedure. During the observation BepiColombo was in the star field of the Hydra constellation. In the animation Bepi is passing by from the upper right to the lower left corner.
Name: Northolt Branch Observatories
Location of image or observation: 51.554679 N, 0.372070 W
Time of image or observation: 2020-04-10 21:13-21:16 UT
Time zone: British Summer Time (GMT+1)
Twitter: @NBObservatories, Facebook: facebook.com/NBObservatories
Description: “A tale of two spacecraft”: As we were observing BepiColombo, we caught a second man-made object passing by. We identify it as an old geostationary satellite.
Image taken with the observatories’ 0.25m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien telescope and QHY42 CMOS camera. Stack of 25x 5-second exposures.
Name: Kiso Observatory, UTokyo
Location of image or observation: Kiso, Nagano, Japan ( 137d37m31.5s [E], 35d47m50.0s [N], Altitude: 1132m )
Time of image or observation: 2020:04:10 20:56 – 21:08 (JST)
Time zone: JST (UTC+9)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb716QkXJ0hLaa3c2reytdw
About your image or observation: This image was taken by the wide-field CMOS camera Tomo-e Gozen on 1.0-m Kiso Schmidt telescope without a wavelength-selective filter with a 12-min exposure from 11:56 on Apr. 10th 2020 (UT). The field-of view is 31.7′ x 17.8′. The center of the image is located at (RA, Dec) = (9:42:23, -0:13:26). North is up.
Credit: INOUE Takeshi
Location of image or observation: US – Mayhill, New Mexico
Time of image or observation: 2020 April 10 / 5:50:57 UTC / an exposure of 30 sec
Time zone: +6h
About your image or observation: I am Director of Akashi Municipal Planetarium, JAPAN.
I took this image remotely with iTelescope T11 (20″ Planewave)
https://go.itelescope.net/Default.aspx
The central objects are Antennae Galaxies,(NGC 4038 / NGC 4039).
I made an observation plan using Stella Navigator 11, excellent astronomical software.
Special thanks to all concerned.
Name: Sergio Silva
Location of image or observation: Porto Feliz, SP, Brazil
Time of image or observation: 2020-04-10UT04:39:58
Time zone: GMT-3
About your image or observation: I looked at the ephemerids of the flyby and realized it would cross a region I’ve been photographing recently at the Blue Horsehead Nebula (IC4592). I pointed the telescope and trusted newtons laws… Sure enough, at 1:40AM local time in Porto Feliz, SP, Brazil the BepiColombo craft passed trough the field.
Equipment :
Telescope : Celestron C11 Edge HD
Lens: Hyperstar
Camera: ZWO ASI071MC-Pro
Mount: iOptron CEM60
Exposure: 3 hours for IC4592, 4×15 sec. for BepiColombo
Credit: Edgar J. Kaiser
Location of image or observation: 54.353222° N, 10.279056 E
Time of image or observation: 2020-04-10, 16:15 UTC
Time zone: CEST
About your image or observation: My first acquisition of Bepi-Colombo’s X-band downlink signal after the flyby. Trees were obstructing in the beginning. Looks like all is in good shape. See also: https://twitter.com/df2mz/status/1248703447664414721
Credit: Gianluca Masi – Virtual Telescope Project. BepiColombo is a sharp dot of light, perfectly tracked. This man-made interplanetary traveler is “flying” in front of the stars on the background.
I decided to use the main telescope available at the Virtual Telescope Project’s site in Ceccano, Italy, 90 km south of Rome, where I live. The fact that the observatory is fully remote made possible for me to plan and handle this complex task from Rome, so respecting the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
The robotic unit I used is named “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) and it has, like the other telescope part of the project, the capability to track any object of known ephemeris. I managed to prepare the latter via the JPL’s HORIZONS system and made the data available to the telescope: at this point, I could only wait and hope.
The flyby time was in the morning twilight, making more complex to image something on the eastern horizon; furthermore a very bright Moon did not help. Finally, most the South-Eastern horizon of my observing site is not clear below 12 degrees of altitude, so I only had a very narrow window to try capturing this extremely demanding target.
At 03:20 UTC, when the target had to be in the clear part of my SE horizon, I did send to the remote telescope the command to slew to the BepiColombo expected position, asking it to track at the expected motion rates. Once the scope finished slewing and begun tracking, I started capturing images and… Bepicolombo was inside the field of view! It was breathtaking, to say the least. It was a sharp dot of light, perfectly tracked. Image after image, I could see this man-made interplanetary traveler “flying” in front of the stars on the background.
I managed to capture a few tens of images before BepiColombo disappeared behind an obstacle I have in the SE direction. The last image I could capture was at 03:41:27 UTC, when the spacecraft was at about 22.300 km from my telescope. At that very moment, the motion rate of BepiColombo as seen from my observatory was of more than 54 deg/hour.
Using 44 images taken back to back between 03:34:48 and 03:40:44 UTC, I managed to make this animation, where the spacecraft is moving 81X times faster than in reality.
Credit: Edgar J. Kaiser. It was a very short encounter with Bepi-Colombo. The spectrogram shows the x-band signal on 8420.44 MHz. There is only a short blip at 03:55 and a 10 min long faint trace afterwards. The prognosed elevation was only 3° maximum and thus the spacecraft probably remained behind local obstructions and I only saw scatter signals. The blip was strong though. So see you later this afternoon Bepi Colombo.
Credit: Edgar J. Kaiser. It was a very short encounter with Bepi-Colombo. The spectrogram shows the x-band signal on 8420.44 MHz. There is only a short blip at 03:55 and a 10 min long faint trace afterwards. The prognosed elevation was only 3° maximum and thus the spacecraft probably remained behind local obstructions and I only saw scatter signals. The blip was strong though. So see you later this afternoon Bepi Colombo.
Mercury watching and hoping to catch a glimpse of BepiColombo. Credit: Helen Usher.
Image by Edgar J. Kaiser. Location of image or observation: 54.353222° N, 10.279056° E. Time of image or observation: 2020-04-04, 19:48:04 UTC
Time zone: CEST. I observed Bepi-Colombo’s X-band downlink signal on 8420.43 MHz. I am using a 1 m parabolic dish antenna. I am planning to go ahead with these observations in the days ahead and I might have a short time window even during the flyby a few minutes before perigee. I am also planning to stream my observation live on Youtube during the flyby. For me Bepi-Colombo will not be out of “sight” after the flyby!
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