Asteroid 2004 BL86 Near earth flyby

Near earth flyby asteroid (357439) 2004 BL86. We were lucky: the sky clear and transparent, the mount tracked correctly (with the right apparent motion) the asteroid in comet mode. It is surprising, that an object of about 500 meters diameter could be seen so clear from a distance three time the earth-moon-distance = 1.2 milllion kilometers. One can get the impression that the asteroid rotates. Some distortions, however, are due to wind gusts (as easily be seen in the distorted star trails). In the second