Congrats Ernesto and Giovanni

Well folks. G11 has now relaunched with brand new Planewave 20inch CDK.

What an amazing piece of technology. Able to carry effortlessly a 6 kg camera assembly and a 12 position (50mm) filter wheel, it's is a stunning telescope. The Ascension mount is so precise it can handle 300 sec unguided images with great precision.

Daddy hasn't had much time to play with his new toy yet, and a recent change of PCs on the home network means I'm still re-installing image processing software as well.

However not to let the side down Ernesto and Giovanni have claimed the first science credits on the new scope!!!!!

Last night they captured one of the two asteroids that zipped deep inside one lunar distance. In a stunning 4 sequence animated gif file they show 2010 RF12 zipping past the earth at an MOID of 79000 at 6klms per sec.

Both asteroids were fairly small and slightly larger than 2008 TC3 that landed in Sudan in October 2008.