Goffin's path crosses the western portions of the Amazon basin and central Peru. After crossing the southern Pacific Ocean, the path crosses the central parts of the South Island of New Zealand. This prediction update has been computed by Jan Manek of the Stefanik Observatory based on astrometry from Ron Stone of the US Navel Observatory - Flagstaff Station, Bill Owen of TMO and the Hipparcos astrometric mission. The Tycho-2 position of the target star has been used.
Observers can carefully compare the brightness of the two stars to detect the event.
The asteroid should be plainly visible. Also of note is the fact that the asteroid is moving quite slowly at this time resulting in a long predicted duration. Date and approx. Uncertainities are given on the basis of the nominal star position errors and the expected asteroid positional accuracy. To see a detailed finder chart, click here .