Asteroids

26 asteroids discovered to date (16 NEAT and 10 night sky)

Follow-up page for my night sky discoveries

NEWS

03.08.2010 2010 AJ2 (KRA039) has been identified with 2002 PR176 and 2003 WO43. The principal designation is 2002 PR176 (K02PH6R). MPEC 2010-P06

21.07.2010 KRA061 has been designated 2002 LR63 (K02L63R), two months after I had found and reported it.

01.06.2010 2010 BN4 = KRA043 = 233967 has been named Vierkant (orbit diagram and citation):

233967 Vierkant Discovered 2010 Jan. 24 by R. Kracht at the Sierra Stars Observatory.
Gisela Vierkant (b. 1919), mother of the discoverer, lived for many years in the city of Bremen, where
Wilhelm Olbers discovered (2) Pallas and (4) Vesta at the Lilienthal Observatory.

20.05.2010 While searching for prediscovery observations of K10J14X in NEAT data I found an unknown asteroid (KRA060) and while searching for additional images of KRA060 I found another unknown (KRA061). KRA061 was visible in five triplets from 2002 June 13 to July 27.

14.04.2010 2010 GE32 has now its first poublished orbit (MPEC 2010-G106).

13.04.2010 I got discovery credit for 2010 GE32, which I had observed only as a one nighter (KRA055) on April 07. With the MPC ephemeris I found it easily in additional G68 images of April 08.

12.04.2010 Rigel didn't sent images. The MPChecker showed 2010 EX139 at the position of KRA059. G96 (Catalina) has observed it on April 10 and it was linked with earlier observations from 691 (Spacewatch).

11.04.2010 KRA059 was clearly visible in only one of three images from Rigel. I didn't sent a report, but used it for computing the position for the next three Rigel images scheduled for April 12.

10.04.2010 KRA054/056/058 was designated 2010 FH87. Discovery credit goes to 691 (Kitt Peak-Spacewatch) for a single night 2010 March 18.
WISE (C51) made ten observations 2010 AN39 on 2010 March 29 and 30. Apparently no cometary activity was detected. Perhaps a stack of these images will show something.
From three scheduled images for KRA059 at Rigel only one was done. It showed no stars.

09.04.2010 Another set of Rigel images showed KRA054/056 again (now designated KRA058) with mag 20.6/20.7. KRA057 wasn't detected again. I found a new faint (mag 20) unknown (KRA059).

08.04.2010 KRA054 was visible in Rigel images (designated KRA056 for this night), but the astrometry had large residuals. KRA055 wasn't detected again. There was a new very faint unknown (KRA057).

07.04.2010 I took two triplets at Sierra Stars to search for new asteroids. With one triplet I accidentaly recovered 2010 EY70, the other showed two rather faint (mag 20.5) new objects (KRA054 and KRA055).

06.04.2010 I found additional NEAT Haleakala images of 2010 EQ45 from 2001 April 18. The orbit is now from three oppostions with U = 2.

05.04.2010 I found 2010 EQ45 again with the Rigel telescope extending the observed arc to 46 days. With the improved orbit I found additional NEAT Palomar images from October/November 2002.

01.04.2010 KRA050 has been designated as 2002 KL16.

18.03.2010 KRA053 has been identified as 2007 TC161. It had been obseved from 2007 October 07 - November 08. This is my third accidental recovery.

17.03.2010 2010 EQ45 has been already observed on February 18 (G96, Catalina) and March 11 (J75, La Sagra), so the first published orbit has an observed arc of 25 days.

16.03.2010 I found KRA052 and KRA053 again in images from Sierra Stars. KRA052 was designated K10E45Q (2010 EQ45).

15.03.2010 I found the new unknown (KRA052) again in images from the Sierra Stars Observatory. A second unknown (KRA053) of mag 20 was not far from KRA052, but outside the field of view of the images from last night.

14.03.2010 I found an unknown asteroid of mag 20 (KRA052) in a triplet of images from Rigel.

06.03.2010 I have made an animation of five images of (233967) taken on January 25 at Rodeo, NM with the 0.61m-reflector.

Each image is exposed for 240 seconds, the magnitude of (233967) is about 19.5 (Orbit Plot).

02.03.2010 2010 BN4 (KRA043) has been numbered 233967 only five weeks after its discovery.

01.03.2010 While searching for prediscovery images of 2010 AA (KRA036) I found an unknown asteroid in NEAT Palomar images of 2002 May 18 - July 27 (KRA050).

26.02.2010 KRA048 was designated K02N73J (2002 NJ73).

25.02.2010 While searching for prediscovery images of 2010 AA (KRA036) I found an unknown asteroid in NEAT Palomar images of 2002 July 05 - 14 (KRA048).

24.02.2010 KRA047 was designated K02L63O (2002 LO63).

23.02.2010 While searching for prediscovery images of 2010 AA (KRA036) I found an unknown asteroid in NEAT Palomar images of 2002 June 12 - July 14 (KRA047). The orbital period of the new object is close to 4.02 years suggesting an Alinda orbit in 3:1 resonance with Jupiter.

16.02.2010 KRA045 has been designated 2010 CV43. Today I found it again with observations from Rodeo (H11). The H11 images showed another unknown, which I found thereupon also in the Rigel images from yesterday close to a bright star (KRA046). I sent my observations to the MPC and soon thereafter received this designations message: KRA046 (K05Y81Q. 2005 YQ81 was observed only from 2005 December 24 to 2006 February 07. This is my second accidental recovery.

15.02.2010 I found again my new unknown (KRA045) with Rigel observations of today. Rigel has only a 37 cm mirror, but that's enough for mag 20 asteroids if the sky conditions are good.

14.02.2010 The Daily Orbit Update (MPEC 2010-C53) has new multi-oppositions orbits for 2010 AB and 2010 AN39. Observations of 2010 AB were found in 2006 and observations of 2010 AN39 in 2008. Spacewatch II (291) observed 2010 AN39 on 2010 February 13. 291 is the observatory code of the 1.8-meter telescope.

13.02.2010 I found a new asteroid of mag about 20 (KRA045) with observations from Rigel.

12.02.2010 With additional observations from Rigel (657) I could extend the observed arc of 2010 AN39 from 20 to 35 days.

11.02.2010 I have made a page about 2010 AN39.

09.02.2010 With additional observations from Rigel (857) I could extend the observed arcs of 2010 AA and 2010 AB from one week to five weeks.

30.01.2010 I wrote a short story about the discovery of 2010 AJ2 and 2010 AP2. It is here.

28.01.2010 KRA044 was designated 2010 BK5 (K10B05K).

27.01.2010 I found KRA044 with track & stack also in the G68 images from January 24.

26.01.2010 The Daily Orbit Update (MPEC 2010-B42) has the new orbit for 2010 AN39. The observed arc is now 20 days.
KRA043 was designated 2010 BN4 (K10B04N). Many observations from single nights were found. The orbit is from 4 oppositions 1999 - 2010. With this orbit I found another 12 observations from 2002 April/May in Palomar/NEAT data.

25.01.2010 I took ten images of each 240 seconds with the 0.61-m reflector at H11. The last six images are of good quality, 2010 AN39 appears stellar.

The new unknown asteroid was again there. I measured the positions and sent them to the MPC.
I found another small (mag 20) unknown (KRA044) in these images.

24.10.2010 Rich Williams at the Sierra Stars Observatory kindly took nine images of each 200 seconds with the 0.61-m reflector, the seeing was "kind of poor". The stacked images show 2010 AN39 elongated in the east-west direction but no center of light or head.
I found a small (mag 19.5) unknown asteroid in these images (KRA043).

21.01.2010 P. Camilleri and S. Williams have taken ten images of each 300 seconds with the 0.35-m reflector at E16 on 2010 January 21 between 14 and 15 hours UTC. I have stacked the images 1,2,3,4,5/2,3,4,5,6/../6,7,8,9,10 with Astrometrica using 0.377"/min and PA 261.7 deg and made this animation:

A small tail seems to be visible to the left (east) side of 2010 AN39. A mag 17 star is close to the first images, but the later images show the tail rather clear. I cannot completely rule out that this is noise but at least the noise assembled at the right place. Perhaps images from Spacewatch will decide.

20.01.2010 Carl Hergenrother wrote to comets-ml: The object should continue to be observed by you and others. I already told Jim Scotti at Spacewatch to observe it. Unfortunately the weather will probably prevent any observations from the SW US for the next few days.

18.01.2010 The latest Orbit Update (MPEC 2010-B07) has for 2010 AN39: a = 4.552, e = 0.395, P = 9.71 years.

17.01.2010 With two additional positions from H11 for 2010 AN39 I have now: a = 4.550 ± 0.066, e = 0.395 ± 0.009, P = 9.71 ± 0.21 years. The orbits looks now very cometary with Jupiter-MOID 0.0865, Jupiter-Tisserand 2.85145, Q = 6.35.

16.01.2010 2010 AN39 has now its first published orbit (MPEC 2010-B01) with a = 4.415, e = 0.381. From 200 Monte Carlo runs with Exorb I have a = 4.421 ± 0.092 and e = 0.383 ± 0.009 and an orbital period of 9.3 ± 0.3 years, closer to the 3:4 resonance (Thule) with Jupiter than to the 2:3 resonance (Hilda). The orbit seems to be very unusual. The latest MPCORB.DAT has only 30 asteroids with a between 4.2 and 4.6 (28 of them found during the last ten years).

15.01.2010 I received additional images from G68 of 2010 AN39. The orbit looks like that of an Hilda asteroid.

13.01.2010 KRA038 was designated K10A39N (2010 AN39). 2010 AP2 (KRA040) has its first published orbit (MPEC 2010-A66).

12.01.2010 I found KRA038 close to the edge of the H11 images and sent my observations to the MPC.
2010 AJ2 (KRA039) was observed by the Mt. Lemmon Survey and LPL/Spacewatch II last night and has now its first published orbit (MPEC 2010-A60).
KRA041 was not confirmed and was removed from the NEOCP.

11.01.2010 2010 AA has now its first published orbit (MPEC 2010 A53, E-assumed). I have found two additional images of KRA038 from January 05, which confirm that this is a real object. I have scheduled follow-up images at H11 for KRA038. Bad weather prevented the recovery of KRA041 at H11.

10.01.2010 I found 2010 AA (KRA036) again and sent my observations to the MPC.
I found a new unknown (KRA041) with unusual motion. The NEO rating was 100%, T. Spahr posted it on the NEOCP.

09.01.2010 KRA039 was designated 2010 AJ2 and KRA040 was designated 2010 AP2.

08.01.2010 I found KRA039 again. This is my first discovery from H11 (Rodeo, NM). I didn't find KRA038 again.
2010 AB (KRA037) was observed by the LINEAR survey last night and has now its first published orbit (MPEC 2010-A33).
I found a new unknown close to KRA039 in the images of January 06 and 08 from H11 (KRA040).

07.01.2010 KRA037 was designated K10A00B (2010 AB). Bad weather prevented observations of KRA038 and KRA039.

06.01.2010 I found KRA037 again and sent my report to the MPC. The images of KRA037 showed another unknown (KRA039).

05.01.2010 I found the first unknown of January 04 (KRA036) again in the new images and sent my report to the MPC. The second unknown from January 04 wasn't there, but a new unknown was found in the new images for the second unknown. The new unknown (KRA037) is rather bright - about mag 18.4 - and should have been observed earlier. I have scheduled follow-up obsevations at Rodeo for the next night, but the moonless hours were already booked and I had to choose times with a moonlit sky. With mag about 18.4 this should be no problem.
I found another unknown (KRA038) in additional SSO images of the last night. This one is rather faint (mag ~19.8) and I had to schedule follow-up for the next but one night.
KRA036 was designated K10A00A (2010 AA).

04.01.2010 I found two faint unknowns in the SSO images and have scheduled follow-up images for the next night.

03.01.2010 The Moon has left the evening sky and I scheduled a triplet of images at SSO.

21.12.2009 The new unknown was identified as 2005 YX118 (observed arc 63 days). So this is my first (unintentional) recovery..

20.12.2009 The new unknown was well visible in the images from Rodeo with about mag 19, the MPChecker had nothing there and FindOrb could fit the observations. I sent my report to the MPC.

19.12.2009 I found my second unknown asteroid in images of the SSO telescope (G68). The weather looked bad for the next night at SSO and Rigel was still closed. So I scheduled again images at Rodeo (H11).

18.12.2009 The unknown asteroid was designated 2009 XG9 (Orbit Plot). Additional observations were found from 2009 November 25 (Spacewatch, Kitt Peak) and December 10 (Catalina Sky Survey, Mt. Lemmon). These additional observations allowed to find further CSS observations from single nights in 2005 September, October and November. From two nights of 2005 it got the provisional designation 2005 SA293, but no orbit was published, the principal designation is 2009 XG9. The orbit is at the inner edge of the main belt (MB I), but it's not a Flora.

17.12.2009 I received my two images from Rodeo, NM and the unknown was there (not far from the center of these images)! I have sent my observations to the MPC and wait for an answer. The MPCecker has nothing there, but it's still possible that previous observations will get credit for this one.

16.12.2009 After several mails to the administrator of Lightbuckets, I could schedule two images for the night of December 16/17 at Rodeo, NM with the 24" telescope.

15.12.2009 Weather was bad at SSO, Rigel went out of service for an upgrade and vacations. I had to find another telescope to follow up this object. I tried Lightbuckets, but this site seemed a bit too difficult for me.

14.12.2009 Weather was bad for SSO and Rigel, no images could be taken.

13.12.2009 I found an unknown asteroid in images of the Rigel telescope (857), which is part of the Sierra Stars Observatory Network (SSON). I took two sets of slightly overlapping triplets with Rigel. Three of these six images were useless (perhaps thin clouds spoiled the view). The unknown was first found in a pair of useful images of one triplet and then in the only usuable image of the other triplet just in the small overlapping region. So it was certainly real!. The velocity of this object was slightly too large for a typical main belt asteroid, but matched well the motion of the Flora asteroids at the inner edge of MB I.

Discovery images of 2009 XG9 (2009 December 13)
taken with the Rigel Telescope (37 cm, f/14 Cassegrain + CCD)
of the University of Iowa, which is part of the SSO network.

Exposure time for each of the three images is five minutes.
The small star close to the center is mag 19.0
The asteroid (above and left of this star) is around mag 19.5.

Distance from Earth: 169 Gm (1.1282 AU)
The diameter of 2009 XG9 is about 1 - 2 km




09.12.2009 Three more NEAT asteroids (K02L63N, K02D20R, K02S74B) found by me have been designated by the MPC.

13.11.2009 Until now, I got twelve designations for new asteroids from NEAT images but three were later identified with already known ones.

06.11.2009 I found another five new asteroids in NEAT images of 2002: K02QD6B, K02EG3K, K02Tc5Q, K02S74A, K02H18L. I have started to use a remotely controlled telescope (Sierra Stars Observatory, G68), which has about the same limiting magnitude as the NEAT images to search for new "realtime" asteroids.

19.10.2009 Just two weeks later I have found another four new asteroids (K02RS1Y, K02GI6M, K02Tc5O, K02L63G). This is more than I had expected to find.

05.10.2009 I have just started to find prediscoveries with SKYMORPH. After a few days I found prediscovery images of the main belt asteroids 2009 KH7, 2009 FQ21 and 2009 DD106 in Palomar NEAT images of 2001 - 2003. The images of 2009 DD106 from 2001-10-24 showed a new object, which I could identify also in the images of 2001-10-16 and 2001-10-08. I sent my measurements of the new object to the MPC and it was acknowledged as K01TQ1A (2001 TA261). This is my first find of a new asteroid.

Table of my discoveries:

New one-opposition orbits:
Object   H     G   Epoch    M      Peri.   Node    Incl.   e        a      Arc C
K01TQ1A 17.1  0.15 K019S 302.755  27.644  65.050   6.278 0.26395   2.56820  16 X
K02D20R 18.2  0.15 K0237  17.491  88.979  61.506   5.823 0.04139   2.30789  39 X
K02GI6M 18.9  0.15 K023R 320.158 109.825 143.743   3.861 0.26963   2.31763   2 X
K02K16L 17.2  0.15        39.057 282.185 299.541  14.741 0.25383   2.61150  70
K02L63G 18.7  0.15 K0256 321.726  68.330 219.044   7.079 0.15375   2.22272  26 X
K02L63N 17.0  0.15 K025Q 337.016 141.259 134.413   9.987 0.11931   2.81119  26 X
K02L63O 16.9  0.15 K026F 299.405 332.441  32.849   2.643 0.17805   2.52668  32 X
K02L63R 16.3  0.15 K0275   2.405 197.218  94.169  16.507 0.25496   3.14453  44 S
K02N73J 18.9  0.15 K0275 358.131 217.270  74.089   3.153 0.22114   2.32348   9 K
K02QD6B 15.9  0.15 K028E 308.562  89.526 318.747  24.487 0.22413   3.16445  27 X
K02RS1Y No published elements available (6 obs from 2 consecutive nights)
K02S74A 16.3  0.15 K029N 347.026  49.516 347.918  24.981 0.21524   3.12308   7 X
K02S74B 16.6  0.15 K02AD  14.239 218.459 128.151   9.077 0.28980   2.68847  47 X
K02Tc5Q 17.1  0.15 K02AD  29.465 287.352  46.489  26.579 0.31813   3.17427  22 X
K10A00A 15.4  0.15 K1014 231.137 139.726 102.691  15.769 0.12182   2.88016  36 X
K10A02P 17.1  0.15 K09CF 356.356   2.996 100.712   2.081 0.22118   3.06787  22 X
K10B05K No published elements available
K10C43V 16.5  0.15 K102D 322.050  44.598 151.021  11.697 0.09592   3.25421  23ES
K10G32E 19.7  0.15 K103P 348.121 198.372  11.959   0.541 0.22175   2.26583   3 S

New multiple-opposition orbits:
Object   H     G   Epoch    M      Peri.   Node    Incl.   e        a      Opp C
K01YG2F 16.2  0.15 K1014 351.634 359.531 196.302   6.434 0.05519   2.37694   4 X
K02EG3K 15.5  0.15 K1014 241.900 351.633  89.072  11.681 0.00973   3.15484   4 X
K09X09G 17.4  0.15 K1014  41.002 130.590 263.363   2.864 0.12877   2.34317   2 X
K10A00B 17.8  0.15 K1014  10.759 337.297 104.027   7.497 0.33005   2.58594   2 X
K10A39N 15.5  0.15 K1014  15.703 140.907 286.018   5.970 0.38702   4.49488   2 X
K10B04N 15.9  0.15 K1014 309.313 230.505 286.916   5.183 0.02252   2.75055   7 X
K10E45Q 16.4  0.15 K107N 312.877 109.927 182.763  11.394 0.29836   2.76495   3 X