NEO

Analysing CCD characteristics and Determining minimum optimal exposure time.

albertw / January 31, 2014

Motivation My main interest st the moment is in minor planet astrometry, particularly of brighter Near Earth Asteroids. In order to get precise astrometry of these objects it helps if they are not moving in a single frame. Slow NEO’s can have rates of several arcseconds per minute so being able to take short exposures […]

Astronomy

Z72’s first contribution to science

albertw / December 27, 2013

On Christmas Eve the Catalina sky survey spotted an object that had not been seen before. Shortly after McDonald observatory in Texas confirmed the object and further observations were needed to help nail down it’s orbit. We had clear skies on Christmas night so I checked the Minor Planet Center NEO page to see if

Astronomy

Near Earth Object Confirmation

albertw / December 27, 2013

More of a note-to-self than a blog post… How to go about confirming NEO’s listed on the NEOCP.