Highland Road Park Observatory

Asteroid Work

The first serious astronomical work we have engaged in at the Observatory is a program of asteroid astrometry and asteroid discovery. There are 700,000+ known asteroids. Over 300,000 have been given official number designations and the remainder have orbits that are not known well enough to be given an official number designation. Precise astrometry (position measurement) of the numbered and un-numbered asteroids is needed to improve the predicted orbits of these asteroids. Some of the benefits of improving the orbital predictions of asteroids include:

• Prediction of future asteroid impacts with the earth.
• Prediction of occultations of stars by asteroids. Occultations allow asteroid shapes and sizes to be determined.
• Better understanding of the dynamics and formation of the solar system.
• Improved selection of and trajectories toward asteroids by space probes.

The 20" telescope and CCD camera are capable of reaching below 18^th magnitude which puts a good portion of the 700,000+ known asteroids within its reach, including a very large number of those with uncertain orbits. This is a field where the Observatory can make a real contribution.

We have been using the Observatory since May of 1998 to image asteroids. The images are made over a period of an hour to several hours. Then the positions are measured to arc-second accuracy and sent to the International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard. After our first astrometry report was accepted and judged accurate by the Minor Planet Center, we were designated observatory #747.

The Observatory has also been used to discover fifty-five new asteroids! These are:

*These asteroids have been either considered “lost,” and then redesignated when rediscovered, or have been traced back to an earlier, more complete discovery. The designations in parenthesis or brackets are the ones originally given to the observatory.

You may get ephemerides for any or all of the asteroid discoveries from the MPC’s Minor Planet & Comet Ephemeris Service.

For a visual reference of the new asteroids locations, please visit this page.

Chart reprinted here courtesy of The Advocate.

To date we have submitted over 1700 astrometric measurements of 246 different asteroids including the 55 discoveries listed above. The other asteroids we have contributed astrometric measurements on are listed on this page.

Last updated by Frederick J. Barnett on Friday, November 2, 2018, 12:43 PM.