The Minor Planet Bulletin
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THE MINOR PLANET BULLETIN OF THE MINOR PLANETS SECTION OF THE BULLETIN ASSOCIATION OF LUNAR AND PLANETARY OBSERVERS VOLUME 35, NUMBER 1, A.D. 2008 JANUARY-MARCH 1. ASTEROID LIGHTCURVE ANALYSIS AT THE OAKLEY a V filter at a scale pixel of 2.32 arcseconds per pixel. On one OBSERVATORY – MAY 2007 night, an additional 14-inch Celestron telescope with an Apogee AP-8p camera, operating unfiltered at a pixel scale of 2.00 Scot Hawkins, Richard Ditteon arcseconds per pixel, was used. Four-minute exposures were used Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology CM 171 for most of the data frames. Master flat and dark frames were 5500 Wabash Avenue generated in MaxImDL, and then used in CCDSoft to calibrate the Terre Haute, IN 47803 images. The magnitudes were measured using MPO Canopus. Due [email protected] to the long exposures, the star subtraction option on MPO Canopus was often necessary. (Received: 15 June Revised: 14 October) Asteroids were selected based on their position in the sky one hour after sunset. Priority was given to asteroids without previously Photometric data for 16 asteroids were obtained at the published lightcurves, but asteroids with well-known periods were Oakley Observatory May 19-22, 2007: 205 Martha, 313 also targeted with the hope that the new data would help with Chaldaea, 314 Rosalia, 458 Hercynia, 479 Caprera, 489 shape modeling and determining pole orientation. Comacina, 1384 Kniertje, 1428 Mombasa, 1558 Jarnefelt, 1910 Mikhailov, 2425 Shenzhen, 3165 To our knowledge, these are the first reported rotational periods Mikawa, 5560 Amytis, (5854) 1992 UP, and (15317) for the following asteroids: 1558 Jarnefelt, 1910 Mikhailov, 2425 1993 HW 1. Shenzhen, 5560 Amytis, and (5854) 1992 UP. The results are summarized in the table below with individual lightcurve plots Data were collected on a total of 16 main-belt asteroids over four after the table. The results and lightcurves are presented without nights in May 2007 from the Oakley Observatory on the campus comment except when necessary. of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana. The data gave useful lightcurves and rotational periods for 15 205 Martha. Our results are consistent with the period of 9.637 h asteroids. Of these 15 periods, eight confirm previously reported given by Harris and Warner (2007), but the 11.90 h period given results, two periods disagreed or removed ambiguity from by Behrend (2007) can’t be ruled out. previously published periods, and five were completely new 313 Chaldaea. The data are consistent with the period of 8.392 h results. Three telescopes were used on all nights. Each telescope was a 14-inch Celestron optical tube assembly mounted on a given by Hainaut-Rouelle (1995) and Behrend (2007). However, due to hardware problems on two nights, we had insufficient data Paramount ME. Each camera was a SBIG STL-1001E which used Period Amp Dates Exposure Data Period Amp Number Name Error Error May 2007 (s) Points (h) (mag) (h) (mag) 205 Martha 19, 22 120 68 9.74 0.03 0.10 0.01 313 Chaldaea 19, 22 120 72 8.38 0.01 0.10 0.02 314 Rosalia 19-22 240 98 20.369 0.001 0.40 0.05 458 Hercynia 19-22 240 85 15.33 0.04 0.35 0.02 479 Caprera 19-21 240 66 9.376 0.001 0.15 0.01 489 Comacina 19-21 240 65 9.00 0.02 0.22 0.02 1032 Pafuri 19, 22 120 66 >13h >0.30 1384 Kniertje 19-21 240 59 9.824 0.001 0.20 0.04 1428 Mombasa 19-22 240 96 17.12 0.01 0.25 0.02 1558 Jarnefelt 19-22 240 90 18.22 0.06 0.40 0.02 1910 Mikhailov 19-22 240 81 8.88 0.03 0.25 0.03 2425 Shenzhen 19-22 240 131 14.715 0.012 0.80 0.02 3165 Mikawa 19-22 240 69 5.100 0.001 0.25 0.05 5560 Amytis 19-22 240 77 7.728 0.001 0.50 0.03 5854 1992 UP 19-22 240 145 14.269 0.001 1.00 0.05 15317 1993 HW1 19-22 240 83 2.660 0.002 0.20 0.05 Minor Planet Bulletin 35 (2008) Available on line http://www.minorplanetobserver.com/mpb/default.htm 2 to rule out the period of 10.08 h found by Debehgne, et al. (1982). Harris, A.W. and B. D. Warner (2007). http://www.minorplanetobserver.com/astlc/LCLIST_PUB.ZIP 314 Rosalia. Our results are incompatible with Behrend’s (2007) period of 15.84 h, but are in reasonable agreement with the period Higgins, D. J. (2005). “Lightcurve and period determination for of 20.43 h given by Warner (2006). 479 Caprera, 2351 O’Higgins, (36378) 2000 OL19, (52750) 1998 KK17, (87648) 2000 SY2.” Minor Planet Bul. 32, 36-38. 458 Hercynia. Binzel (1987) found the period to be either 14.9 or 22.3 h. While he preferred the latter period, our result is closer to Pravec, P., M. Wolf, L. Sarounova. (2007). the former. Our data are incompatible with Behrend’s (2007) http://www.asu.cas.cz/~ppravec/newres.txt period of 10.924 h. Stephens, R. D.,Brincat, S. M., and Doff, R. A. (2001). 479 Caprera. Our period disagrees with Behrend’s (2007) 5.324 h “Collaborative Photometry of 489 Comacina, March through May period but is similar to the 9.4277 h period found by Higgins 2001.” Minor Planet Bul. 28, 73. (2005). Warner, B. D. (2006). “Asteroid Lightcurve Analysis at the 489 Comacina. Our period is in good agreement with Stephens’ Palmer Divide Observatory – March-June 2006.” Minor Planet (2001) period of 9.02 h, but our data can not be fit to the 7.3509 h Bul. 33, 85-88. period given by Behrend (2007). 1032 Pafuri. With only two nights of data, no lightcurve was found, although the data rule out any period shorter than 13 h. 1384 Kniertje. Warner (2006) reported that the period is ambiguous, with a preferred value of 12.255 h. His other period of 9.816 h is close to that reported by Behrend (2007). While our data are consistent with either of these values, the later value has a 4% smaller RMS error. 1428 Mombasa. Our data are inconsistent with the period of 17.6h given by Behrend (2007). 2425 Shenzhen and (5854) 1992 UP. These asteroids were independently targeted. However, since they were between 13 and 25 arcminutes apart over the four nights, they appeared together in almost every frame and were measured in both. 3165 Mikawa. This was a target of opportunity, appearing in the data frames with 5560 Amytis. Our results were consistent with previous results by Ellsworth (2002). (15317) 1993 HW1. Our result agrees very well with the period of 2.6580 h found by Pravec (2007). Acknowledgement This research was supported in part by NASA through the American Astronomical Society's Small Research Grant Program. References Behrend, R. (2007). Observatoire de Geneve web site, http://obswww.unige.ch/~behrend/page_cou.html . Binzel, R. P. (1987). “A Photoelectric Survey of 130 Asteroids.” Icarus 72 135-208. Debehogne, H., G. De Sanctis, and V. Zappala (1982). “Photoelectric Photometry of Three Dark Asteroids.” Astron. Astrophys. 108, 197-200. Ellsworth, N., S. Hughes, R. Ditteon. (2002). “Photometry of Asteroids 2962 Otto and 3165 Mikawa.” Minor Planet Bul. 29, 68. Hainaut-Rouelle, M. C., Hainaut, O. R., and Detal A. (1995). “Lightcurves of selected minor planets.” Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 112, 125-142. Minor Planet Bulletin 35 (2008) 3 Minor Planet Bulletin 35 (2008) 4 PERIOD DETERMINATION FOR 1704 WACHMANN William M. Julian II Sandia View Observatory 4597 Rockaway Loop Rio Rancho, NM 87124 [email protected] (Received: 22 August ) Asteroid 1704 Wachmann was observered on 2 nights in April 2007. The lightcurve period was found to be 3.314 ± 0.001h with an amplitude of 0.20 ± 0.05m. Observations of 1704 Wachmann were carried out at Sandia View Observatory (MPC code H03). SVO contains a permanently mounted 0.30m f/10 Meade SCT OTA and SBIG ST-10XME CCD camera mounted on a Bisque Paramount ME. Telescope control was handled thru Astronomers Control Panel (ACP) software which handled automatic meridian flips and multiple target asteroids throughout the all night imaging sessions. The CCD was controlled via MaxIm/DL thru ACP. Imaging was done unfiltered to maximize signal to noise, with exposures of 120 seconds at bin 2 for an image scale of 0.95 arc seconds per pixel. Automatic bias, dark and flat reductions were handled thru ACP and MaxIm/DL using master reduction files. Photometric measurements and lightcurves were prepared with MPO Canopus. Asteroid 1704 Wachmann was selected from the CALL website “List of Potential Targets” (Warner 2006). This asteroid was then checked with the list of known asteroid lightcurves parameters maintained by Alan Harris (Harris 2006) to observe an asteroid that had no known period. The asteroid showed a well fitting bimodal curve after only two nights of observations. A total of 294 observations were gathered over two nights in April to derive a period of 3.314 h ±0.001h and amplitude of 0.20m ±0.05. Further observations were unsuccessful due to early monsoonal weather. References Harris, A. W., Warner, B. D. Minor Planet Lightcurve Parameters. 2006 March 14. http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/lists/LightcurveDat.html CALL website supported by Brian D. Warner. http://www.minorplanetobserver.com/astlc/default.htm Minor Planet Bulletin 35 (2008) 5 LIGHTCURVES OF MINOR PLANETS Montigiani, N., Mannucci, M., Benedetti, W., and Riccetti, S.