Expert: Ed - 9/15/2004

Question
Hello Ed,
I live 20 miles N.E. of Detroit,On Sept.29th,where on the standard star chart can I observe it,also,what time is it expected to make its closest approach to Earth?
                              Thank you! Tom

Answer
Tom,
At its absolute closest approach, Sept 28-29, Toutatis will be in the constellation Centaurus, which is best seen from the southern hemisphere.  However, you should still be able to take a crack at viewing it before then.  Tonight, for example, t is currently located fairly close to the star Delta Capricorni, in the constellation Capricorn.  Scroll down to near the bottom of this website, which is maintained by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA.
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/ep/starreport.html

This is a very useful website, to help you locate Delta Capricorni from your latitude.  You should be able to use this website even if you are very new to astronomy.  Just relax and play around with it online.  If you have questions you can e-mail me again, I don't mind.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/

Also, check out this useful websites:

http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/4179_Toutatis/toutatis.html

I hope this is helpful to you.  Keep Looking Up!
--Ed