Asteroids

Last Updated:
2017 Jan 15 15:49 UTC

Source file:
minor_planets.txt

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Objects on this page are listed in numeric order for numbered objects and designation order for un-numbered objects.

Submitting images: When submitting images to TA please send them as an e-mail attachment and please try to use the following filename format: object_yyyymmdd_hhmm_observer.jpg where object is the name of the object, yyyymmdd, hhmm is the date and time of the exposure (the hhmm field is optional) and observer is a unique observer code (say your initials). It is also a good idea to include details of the telescope, scale, orientation, camera, filter etc as annotation on the image.

Appulse of 94 Aurora and PPM 70703

On 1998 March 11 the asteroid 94 Aurora was predicted to occult the star PPM 70703 as seen from parts of NW Europe. Denis Buczynski obtained this image using the 0.33-m Conder Brow Automatic Telescope. It is a composite of 21 CCD exposures taken between March 11.81553 and 11.94850. The trail of the minor planet can be seen heading for the star.

Appulse of 308 Polyxo with SAO 94989

2004 January 28. Composite image by Maurice Gavin.

596 Scheila

Images in outburst: 2010 December 13 (Mobberley), 2010 December 13 (James), 2010 December 14 (Mobberley), 2010 December 15 (James), 2010 December 15 (NLO), 2010 December 16 (Mobberley), 2010 December 19 (Campas).

3174 Alcock

2001 December 18 (Mobberley).

3200 Phaethon

2004 December 19 (Mobberley).

3697 Guyhurst

Martin Mobberley writes: After something of a battle, I tracked down asteroid 3697 Guyhurst (currently about 3 weeks past opposition, at ephemeris magnitude 17.3) this evening. It's within a few arcminutes of the 0 hours RA line in Pisces. The attached image is a composite of nine 60 second exposures taken between 2036 and 2138 UT on 2000 October 19. The asteroid was moving at 29 arcsec/hour in PA 256. (0.49m f/4.5 Newt. and MX916 CCD).

4179 Toutatis

On 1996 November 29 4179 Toutatis passed just over 5 million km from the Earth. At that time it was not easy to observe since its elongation from the Sun was small. This image by Martin Mobberley shows the asteroid moving rapidly across the sky between 0015 and 0030 on 1996 December 14. During the exposure the 12th magnitude asteroid moved by 60 arcsec. Takahashi E-160 + SXL8 CCD.

On 2004 September 29.5 Toutatis passes around 0.01 a.u. from the Earth. Images: 2004 September 18 (David Strange).

4522 Britastra

Imaged by Martin Mobberley on 2003 April 21.

6411 Tamaga (=1993 TA)

The following has appeared in MPC 29671 dated 1997 Apr 22: Discovered 1993 Oct. 8 by R. H. McNaught at Siding Spring. Named for The Astronomer, a British magazine in which active amateur astronomers publish and discuss their observations. Founded in 1964 by James Muirden as The Casual Astronomer, the magazine has developed over the years to include rapid discovery announcements and many other initiatives by the current editor, Guy Hurst. The search programs for novae and supernovae and the observational programs for cataclysmic variables initiated through the magazine have been most successful. The subscribers include many of the most active and talented amateurs in the U.K. and overseas. The discoverer's own interest in observational astronomy was spurred by TA.

This asteroid was well placed in early 1999. Martin Mobberley obtained this image on 1999 March 10 using his 0.49-m Newtonian and a stack of 20 exposures each of 30s duration. This frame is 4'x5' in area with S at the top.

7239 Mobberley (1989 TE)

Discovered 1989 Oct. 4 by B. G. W. Manning at Stakenbridge. Named in honour of Martin P. Mobberley, photographer and astrometrist of comets, minor planets, variable stars, novae and supernovae. His fine photographs and CCD images have appeared in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association for many years. Since 1990 he has occupied the position of Papers Secretary to the Association, and as such he is responsible for arranging, refereeing and recommending articles for publication. For the past six years he has prepared and given an entertaining short talk on currently visible sky phenomena at every monthly meeting of the Association. Mobberley is also assistant editor of The Astronomer magazine.

Image: 2003 September 4 (Mobberley).

8166 Buczynski (1991 AH1)

Discovered on 1991 January 12 by B. G. W. Manning at Stakenbridge. Imaged by Denis Buczynski on 2002 January 17 when it was around magnitude 17.

8914 Nickjames (1995 YP2)

Discovered on Christmas day 1995 by B. G. W. Manning at Stakenbridge. Imaged by Nick James on 2002 January 20 when it was around magnitude 17.6. 2002 March 9 when it was around magnitude 17.8. 2003 May 25 when it was around magnitude 18.0. 2006 January 21 when it was around magnitude 18.0. 2006 December 12 when it was around magnitude 17.5. 2007 January 14 when it was around magnitude 16.8.

1937 UB (Hermes)

The long-lost asteroid was discovered at Heidelberg on two photographic plates taken on 1937 October 28. At the time the object had a daily motion of almost ten degrees and subsequent searches for it were unsuccesful. Hermes was lost until recently when Brian Skiff at Lowell detected a bright object at 14th magnitude in Cetus. Rapid follow-up observations by other observers allowed an accurate orbit to be calculated and it quickly became apparent that this was the long-lost Hermes.

Images: 2003 October 15 (Nick James), 2003 October 26 (Martin Mobberley).

1998 FX2

This asteroid was discovered on 1998 March 22 at the Lincoln Observatory, New Mexico and it magnitude 14 was unusually bright for a new discovery. Its closeness to the earth meant that it had a relatively high apparent motion when this image was obtained on 1998 April 3. Nick James used a 240s CCD exposure with a 0.30m Newtonian telescope.

1998 QP

Chris Spratt writes: This picture taken on 1998 August 22 is a highly processed composite of four images showing the fast moving asteroid 1998 QP. The telescope was a 4-inch TeleVue Refractor f/5.4, Starlight Xpress HX516 CCD with an IRB filter in system. Each image was 60 seconds.

1998 WT24

This asteroid makes a close approach to the Earth in 2001 December. It passes only 0.013 AU (2 million km) from us on December 16 when it should be brighter than tenth magnitude for a while. Nick James obtained this image on 2001 December 8. Also a short movie (1.6MB) made from exposures obtained on 2001 December 11 (James). This movie is made up of 300 twenty second exposures showing the asteroid moving with respect to the background stars. These 300 frames were used to generate this lightcurve. Other images: 2001 December 14 (Mobberley), 2001 December 14 (Waddington). Nick James obtained another movie (1.8MB) on 2001 December 17. This one was made when the object was moving at around a degree an hour. It is made up of 350 unfiltered CCD frames taken between 19:25UT and 21:04UT on a KAF-0401E CCD binned 2x2 at the focus of a 0.30m Newt. Each frame is a 10 sec exposure with around 7 sec dead time between the frames. The movie runs at 25 fps so it is running about 400x faster than real time.

1999 AP10

2009 October 12 (Harlow).

1999 CV3

This bright, fast-moving asteroid was discovered by M. Blythe, F. Shelly and M. Bezpalko, Lincoln Laboratory ETS, New Mexico using the 1.0-m f/2.15 reflector and CCD. In mid February 1999 it was of 13th magnitude moving north in Leo. This image obtained on 1999 February 13 is a composite of 70 exposures taken over a period of two hours. The exposures were used to construct a lightcurve which shows a variation of 0.3 mag in two hours. This is the lightcurve in GIF or Postscript. Denis Buczynski obtained a more comprehensive lightcurve over four hours on 1999 February 22.

1999 GU3

This asteroid was discovered by the Lincoln Laboratory team in New Mexico using a 1.0-m f/2.15 reflector + CCD. Observations put it as bright as magnitude 12 in mid 1999 April. Martin Mobberley obtained an image taken using a 0.3-m LX200 & ST7 on 1999 April 16 despite drifting cloud and ice on the corrector plate! The trail on this image is approximately 70 arcsec long.

2000 DO1

MPEC 2000-D35 reports that T. B. Spahr and R. E. Hill using the 0.41-m f/3 Schmidt + CCD of the Catalina Sky Survey (Station 703) have detected a relatively bright nearby asteroid. This image by Nick James taken on 2000 March 4 shows the fast moving object as short streak. It is moving through Leo and it became brighter than 15th magnitude for a few days around 2000 March 8.

2000 ED14

2003 February 23 (Birtwhistle).

2000 QW7

This bright Near Earth Asteroid was well placed for observation in 2000 August. Denis Buczynski imaged it on 2000 August 29. On the next day, 2000 August 30, Martin Mobberley obtained this image.

2001 YB5

This NEO came to within 850,000km of the Earth on 2002 January 7. This image was taken in poor conditions with a nearby Moon on 2002 January 2 by Nick James.

2002 NY40

A large NEO that passed within 530,000 km of the Earth. Images: 2002 August 10 (Mobberley), 2002 August 14 (Mobberley), 2002 August 16 (Gavin), 2002 August 17 (Gavin), 2002 August 17 (Lehky), 2002 August 17 (Lehky), 2002 August 17 (Jäger), 2002 August 18 (James).

2002 AA29

This asteroid is co-orbital with the Earth. See this site for more details. Images: 2003 January 12 (Birtwhistle).

2002 VE68

2010 November 7 (Mobberley).

2003 AF23

2012 January 13 (James).

2003 BM4

2003 January 30 (Birtwhistle).

2003 DW10

2003 March 2 (Birtwhistle).

2003 HW10

Imaged during close approach on 2003 April 27 (Birtwhistle).

2003 SR84

Imaged during close approach on 2003 September 25 (Birtwhistle) when it was moving at 50 arcsec/min.

2003 UV11

2010 October 27 (Mobberley). 2010 October 25 (Mobberley) 2010 October 27 (Mobberley) 2010 October 30 (Mobberley)

2003 XH10

2003 December 7 (Birtwhistle).

2003 XJ7

2003 December 6 (Birtwhistle).

2004 CQ

Newly discovered Amor asteroid. Image: 2004 February 11 (Birtwhistle).

2004 CZ1

2004 February 22 (Birtwhistle). Passed six lunar distances from Earth two days after this image was taken. It was moving at 38 arcsec/min when imaged.

2004 DF2

2004 February 20 (Birtwhistle). This small Apollo came to within 2.8 lunar distances 3 days before these images were taken and faded very rapidly in the 24 hours between images.

2004 DA53

2004 February 27 (Birtwhistle). This a small Aten that came to just 1.3 lunar distances 2.5 days before the image. This also has turned out to be the last observation of this minor planet at this apparition.

2004 FY31

This Apollo was imaged by Peter Birtwhistle on 2004 April 3 (Birtwhistle).

2004 MN4

Temporarily a Torino 2 object. 2004 December 26 (Birtwhistle).

2004 XP14

This object made a close appoach to the Earth on 2006 July 3. Images: 2006 July 3 (Mobberley), 2006 July 3 (Mobberley), 2006 July 3 (James), 2006 July 4 (Miles).

2005 WJ56

2008 January 7 (Harlow).

2005 YU55

2011 November 9 (Campas), 2011 November 9 (Mobberley2), 2011 November 9 (Mobberley), 2011 November 9 (James).

2005 XZ

2005 December 5 (Miles).

2006 OS5

2006 September 6 (Donato/Sostero).

2006 XD2

This 250m diameter NEO came close to the Earth in 2006 December: 2006 December 16 (Mobberley), 2006 December 17 (James), 2006 December 20 (James).

2007 TU24

2008 January 27 (Mobberley), 2008 January 27 (Sostero), 2008 January 29 (James), 2008 February 1 (Arditti). 2008 February 2 (movie) (James).

2008 YK2

2008 December 21 (Gonano).

2008 TT26

2008 October 23 (Muller).

2009 DO111

2009 March 18 (Strange), 2009 March 18 (Strange), 2009 March 18 (Mobberley), 2009 March 18 (James).

2011 GP59

2011 April 12 (Mobberley)

2011 MD

2011 June 26 (James)

2012 DA14

2012 February 15 (Buczynski), 2012 February 15 (Ward), 2013 February 15 (Strange), 2013 February 15 (Peach), 2013 February 15 (Storey),

2012 LZ1

2012 June 14 (Mobberley), 2012 June 15 (Mobberley),

2012 QG42

2012 September 9 (Mobberley), 2012 September 10 (Buczynski),

TEB5DC6

2012 March 3 (James),

J002E3

This NEO is probably the third (S-IVB) stage of the Apollo 12 Saturn V (SA-507) which entered Earth's orbit via the L1 Lagrangian point and will leave via the same route in 2003. Images: 2002 September 15 (Luca/Andrea), 2003 December 28 (Birtwhistle), 2003 May 20 (Birtwhistle).

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