Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) wasn’t alone in the pre-dawn skies above Slooh’s Canary Islands Observatory recently. Accompanying Comet ISON was the huge asteroid “433 Eros” – the second largest Near-Earth Asteroid. Eros was traveling in roughly the same direction as ISON, but at a slightly faster apparent speed, and can be seen above and to the right of the comet. Slooh Members watched the images come in from the observatory in real-time, and immediately spotted the second object moving between successive images.
This time-lapse of five images, created recently by Paul Cox using Slooh’s online robotic telescopes, shows the two objects as they speed through the inner solar system. You can check out updates on Comet ISON and other related online robotic telescope shows at slooh.com.
Irene W. Pennington Planetarium 