On the discovery and precovery of Trans-Neptunian Objects from SDSS images

by planetaryscience

in the just chat thread, a few days ago, I had posted a few observations of the TNOs, SDOs, and OCOs 90377 Sedna, 2004 XR190, and 1999 CL119. A few of you, namely @Capella05 were curious as to how I had found them, as it's extremely unlikely if not impossible that I would point to a random object and know that it is Sedna. I present to you an in-depth explanation, to an almost painful degree, of how I found them.

First of all, I went to the JPL parameter query page which lets you get a group of asteroids with certain physical/orbital parameters, such as the rotation period, diameter, perihelion distance, or Earth Minimum Orbital Intersection Distance. In this case I selected q >= 40 AU and condition code &lt 8. q is the perihelion distance, or minimum distance to the Sun that an object will make in its orbit, and condition code is the certainty of the orbit based on observations, where 9 is an extremely poorly determined orbit that could pretty much be anywhere and 0 is an extremely well-determined orbit, usually from decades worth of observations.

Lastly, add in physical parameters, H (mag) &lt= 8, which corresponds roughly to objects 100 kilometers across or larger, because while that is quite large in the asteroid belt or a similar area, in the outer Kuiper belt objects are much further away, and as a result much dimmer/smaller than they would be if they were closer. The limiting magnitude of SDSS band r is magnitude 23.0, i being 23.1 and g being 22.7. (r corresponds to Green in SDSS, with i and g being red and blue respectively)

After all of this, you should arrive with a list of 317 objects. Now, sort them by q twice, so that the highest on the list has the highest q value, which should be 2012 VP113. Click on it, and click on 'ephemeris' which is just below the object name and the words Classification : TransNeptunian Object Put in the values for it as OBSERVER /2012 VP113 (which it should already be) / Geocentric (500) / Start = 1999/01/01, Stop = 2008/12/31, Step =1 d / defaults / defaults and press generate ephemeris. The dates were selected because that's the approximate range of dates from SDSS images. Now, before doing anything else, take a moment to scroll down the list and look at the magnitude, which is usually something around 22 to 23 and listed as APmag. If this value is 23 or greater, as is the case with 2012 VP113, then it would be too dim to view with the SDSS telescope.

Go back to the list, and select the next on the list, 90377 Sedna (2003 VB12) and do the same thing. The magnitude here is much better, ranging from 20.96 to 21.22. Once the magnitude has been verified, check the declination. Chances are it's going to be positive or around 0, but most of SDSS doesn't cover things under -10 declination, and the most southern tip of observations is only -24 degrees. If it's below -24, just move on to the next. However Sedna stays at roughly +5 to 6 degrees through the entire time so it should be okay for that too.

Now take the RA and DEC for January 1st, 1999; 03:03:21.62, +04:55:48.6 and plug them into this handy sexadecimal/decimal RA/DEC calculator. It's only a rough calculator to the nearest arcsecond, though. If you have some time and want to do it manually, take the RA hour and multiply it by 15. That's the nearest hour for the RA; then take the arcminute and divide it by 4, and add the result to the hour. Finally take the arcsecond and divide it by 240 and add it to the value. For the declination, which is much simpler, take the arcminute and divide it by 60 and add it to the degree of declination, and then take the arcsecond and divide it by 3600 and add it to that. The RA/DEC converter give's Sedna's Jan 1, 1999 coordinates as 45.8417, 4.9303, and manually doing it will give coordinates of 45.8401, 4.93016667.

Now, here's the part where SDSS comes in. Put the values into the navigate menus of either Dr8 or Dr7, or preferably both. I found, despite what others have said, that they can be helpful for finding asteroids with because they are often taken at different times. You can use the often-used blink method, used for finding many asteroids and even Pluto, to find something that looks different between the two. However, various issues can occur that would prevent one from being able to use that on SDSS images. The three objects I found using the method I'm explaining are good examples of the different issues. Occasionally, a field won't have a new image taken of it between Dr7 and Dr8, so the field remains the same, as was the case with the field Sedna was discovered in. Both Dr7 and Dr8 were the same field because no new one was taken. Another common issue is that a field was only taken in Dr8 and by the time Dr7 was published they hadn't observed that field yet, as was the case with 1999 CL119.

Either way, you should now have an image of where Sedna was on January 1st, 1999 on either Dr8, Dr7, or both. It would help to press the 'fields' button, to know where you are in the field taken of the area. Now press the explore button at the top left, which directs you to the nearest object even if it's not within 0.2 arcminutes (12 arcseconds). Now, on the explore tab, press 'field' and scroll down to Mjd_r. The value should be something like 5.19604132E4. Now go to this julian date converter and change the value so that instead of being 5.19604132, it has 4 decimals less than 0, making it 51960.4132. Also mjd is 12 hours ahead of regular Julian date, so add 0.5 value to the given mjd and put it into the converter. Keep the value you get in mind, and keep doing the ra/dec/convert/input/field/date process over and over again until you get to the rough area/time the asteroid would be expected to be based on the dates the fields were taken on. At this point, keep in mind the exact julian date to the hour or minute. You'll be needing this very soon.

Here comes the hard part. Put the expected values to the rough date into this asteroid location plot and put in the date. Also change the limiting magnitude to 25. click the build plot button to see the approximate movement of the asteroid and direction of movement. Now, back in Dr8/Dr7, which should be simplified quite a bit if Dr8/Dr7 are different, when you need only search for the dot that's there in one but not the other. If not, though, you'll need to search for something in the general vicinity that is "asteroid-colored" - typically TNOs at this distance, while slightly redder than other asteroids, have a distinct faint white/yellowish color to them not typical of stars/galaxies. If you can't tell the different no matter how hard you try, go try to find the rough location using Wikisky or perhaps the WISE images. Once you're reasonably certain of the asteroid's location, if it's Dr8 go to explore of the asteroid and look at the magnitude; the r magnitude should be about 0.1-0.3 magnitudes brighter than the expected magnitude. Also look at the RA and DEC and see how well they agree with the expected RA and DEC for the same time, by going on the ephemeris and selecting the day the object was taken on, plus or minus a few minutes with a time step of 1 minute.

Expected/found position of TNOs found using the aforementioned method

90377 Sedna

expected position:

asteroid below

RA residual: 0

DEC residual: 0.2

2004 XR190

expected position:

asteroid to right

RA residual: 0.1

DEC residual: 1.2

1999 CL119

expected position:

asteroid to left

RA residual: 0.05

DEC residual: 0.1

Posted November 1, 2014 9:57 PM
by planetaryscience

2003 UB292 found!

Posted November 2, 2014 1:55 AM
by JeanTate

Very cool, planetary science! 😃

Question: how do you deal with 'chance coincidences'?

To be sure you've found a moving object, you need to compare images of the same field taken at different times, right? And the more images - with consistent 'hits' - the better; you could even (in principle) try to update the orbits using the images you found (I guess).

Posted November 2, 2014 10:44 AM
by planetaryscience

My apologies, it appears I'd accidentally opened my reply as a new discussion board.

Well as you can see asteroid 2003 UB292 was fairly hard to find - first, it was magnitude 22.75, only slightly brighter than 2004 XR190. To make it more complicated, it was right next to a bright star and a galaxy; along with the fact that Dr7 and Dr8 were taken at the same time here. In this case, I looked at both WISE and wikisky, mentioned above in the description. In the DSS images of the same area, both of the stars/galaxies are visible, but there is no dot to the left of them. Plus the shown image is the expected position of the object, which matches almost perfectly with the found position.

Now, updating the orbits of the objects is much, much, much, much more complicated. Unlike predicting where an asteroid is going to be in the sky, you need to take a huge number of things into account, such as the rotation of the earth, the movement of the earth around the sun, the asteroid's simultaneous orbit around the sun, and even slight speed-of-light-delay at this distance. I still don't know how to calculate orbits despite how hard I've looked. However I send my observations to the Minor Planet Center, which is an official International Astronomical Union center for keeping a catalog of minor planets, and if you want to send orbits in that's the #1 place to send them in for them to calculate the orbits for you.

Posted November 2, 2014 11:27 PM
by planetaryscience

136199 Eris found!

expected position

1237679254130131024

Posted November 4, 2014 3:20 AM
by c_cld in response to planetaryscience's comment.

@planetaryscience too many lack of consistency for 1999 CL119 becoming (79962) 1999 CR119 which is not transneptunian and now 2004 CL119 not transneptunian.

Could you favor links and SDSS Ids as to check more easily typos and errors 😃

Posted November 4, 2014 9:47 AM
by planetaryscience

Sorry, the transneptunian objects are 2004 XR190 and 1999 CL119, which as you can see I confuse quite a bit.

Posted November 4, 2014 3:56 PM
by planetaryscience

79360 Sila-Nunam found twice in Dr7 and Dr8 in SDSS obs

1237664835387917087

587739152818242295

mag = 21.72 in both

Posted November 6, 2014 2:48 AM
by planetaryscience

2011 GM27 - found no less than 5 years, 85 days before it was discovered!!

directly above expected position

1237671141475942930

The fairly large difference from expected/found position is because it had previously only had 17 observations over 2 years starting in 2011. Since this observation was from 2006, a program to determine the locations of asteroids says it could have been located anywhere in a theoretical circle drawn with the crosshairs in the SDSS image as the axes to the circle. The asteroid is reportedly magnitude 21.73 but explore estimates a magnitude more around magnitude 21.5.

Posted November 7, 2014 2:04 AM
by JeanTate

This is all very cool, planetaryscience, well done! 😃

From the description you posted (upthread), I see that you actually have the date/time of each SDSS observation, of each object. If I recall correctly, SDSS uses MJD (modified julian date) as its date/time record, so I guess this is what you extract from the relevant records, right?

Might I suggest that when you post matches you also post the MJD of the images?

Posted November 7, 2014 9:52 AM
by planetaryscience

well it'll take a little while to find the mjd but here are the dates:

date difference as YY:MM:DD

1999-10-13.44 : 2006 SF369 ---------------- 06Y 11M 17D prior to discovery ----- 05Y 11M 09D prior to first obs

1999-10-14.38 : 2004 VD131 ---------------- 05Y 00M 26D prior to discovery ----- 05Y 00M 26D prior to first obs

1999-10-14.45 : 229762 2007 UK126 ---------------- 08Y 00M 05D prior to discovery ----- 17Y 01M 28D after first obs

2000-03-30.37 : 2012 DR30 ---------------- 09M 00Y 01D prior to discovery ----- 00Y 00M 06D prior to first obs

2000-05-04.28 : 2005 EO304 ---------------- 04Y 10M 00D prior to discovery ----- 04Y 10M 00D prior to first obs

2000-05-05.19 : 10199 Chariklo ---------------- 03Y 02M 20D after discovery ----- 11Y 06M 00D after first obs

2000-09-03.27 : 160091 2000 OL67 ---------------- 00Y 01M 05D after discovery ----- 00Y 01M 05D after first obs

2000-09-03.28 : 2000 QE226 ---------------- 00Y 00M 05D after discovery ----- 00Y 00M 05D after first obs

2000-09-03.29 : 2001 QQ322 ---------------- 00Y 11M 18D prior to discovery ----- 00Y 11M 18D prior to first obs - accepted

2001-02-20.22 : 2013 FZ27 ---------------- 12Y 00M 24D prior to discovery ----- 09Y 11M 10D prior to first obs

2001-02-20.27 : 126719 2002 CC249 ---------------- 00Y 11M 19D prior to discovery ----- 00Y 11M 19D prior to first obs

2001-02-20.39 : 2013 FB28 not found yet but general area is confirmed

2001-02-20.42 : 2005 GX186 ---------------- 04Y 01M 21D prior to discovery ----- 04Y 01M 21D prior to first obs - accepted

2001-02-22 : 2013 FC28 not found yet but general area is confirmed

2001-09-19.30 : 160256 2002 PD149 ---------------- 00Y 10M 22D prior to discovery ----- 01Y 11M 16D after first obs

2001-09-19.40 : 2000 QC226 ---------------- 01Y 00M 21D after discovery ----- 01Y 00M 21D after first obs

2002-02-13.35 : 2000 CJ105 ---------------- 02Y 00M 08D after discovery ----- 00Y 00M 08D after first obs

2002-03-05.23 : 2002 CT154 ---------------- 00Y 01M 00D after discovery ----- 00Y 11M 08D after first obs - accepted

2002-03-05.23 : 2000 CJ105 ---------------- 02Y 01M 00D after discovery ----- 02Y 01M 00D after first obs

2002-09-05.30 : 2003 SQ317 ---------------- 01Y 00M 20D prior to discovery ----- 01Y 00M 20D prior to first obs

2002-12-06.32 : 2004 XR190 ---------------- 02Y 00M 05D prior to discovery ----- 02Y 00M 05D prior to first obs

2002-12-07.50 : 2000 CL104 ---------------- 02Y 10M 02D after discovery ----- 02Y 10M 02D after first obs

2002-12-14.48 : 2005 EW318 ---------------- 02Y 02M 22D prior to discovery ----- 02Y 02M 22D prior to first obs - accepted

2003-02-01.18 : 420356 2012 BX85 ---------------- 08Y 11M 22D prior to discovery ----- 08Y 10M 30D prior to first obs

2003-03-31.16 : 2002 GV31 ---------------- 00Y 11M 25D after discovery ----- 00Y 11M 25D after first obs

2003-04-01.21 : 2003 FH127 ---------------- 00Y 00M 02D after discovery ----- 00Y 00M 02D after first obs

2003-12-21.17 : 2000 YB2 ---------------- 03Y 00M 05D after discovery ----- 03Y 00M 05D after first obs

2003-12-21.19 : 143991 2003 YO179 ---------------- 00Y 00M 04D after discovery ----- 00Y 02M 18D after first obs

2003-12-25.45 : 2000 CN105 ---------------- 03Y 10M 09D after discovery ----- 03Y 10M 09D after first obs

2004-02-17.28 : 33001 1997 CU29 ---------------- 07Y 00M 11D after discovery ----- 07Y 00M 11D after first obs - accepted

2004-03-17.26 : 79360 Sila-Nunam ---------------- 07Y 01M 14D after discovery ----- 07Y 01M 14D after first obs - accepted

2004-03-17.27 : 2000 CO105 ---------------- 04Y 01M 12D after discovery ----- 04Y 01M 12D after first obs

2004-03-18.22 : 79360 Sila-Nunam ---------------- 07Y 01M 15D after discovery ----- 07Y 01M 15D after first obs - accepted

2004-03-18.22 : 2006 BR284 ---------------- 01Y 10M 13D prior to discovery ----- 01Y 10M 13D prior to first obs - accepted

2004-03-18.23 : 1999 CD158 ---------------- 05Y 01M 08D after discovery ----- 05Y 01M 08D after first obs

2004-09-17.26 : 55636 2002 TX300 ---------------- 01Y 11M 02D after discovery ----- 50Y 00M 21D after first obs

2004-12-12.40 : 2005 BV49 ---------------- 00Y 01M 04D prior to discovery ----- 02Y 11M 02D after first obs - accepted

2004-12-13.40 : 1999 CL119 ---------------- 05Y 10M 02D after discovery ----- 05Y 10M 02D after first obs - accepted

2004-12-13.41 : 79978 1999 CC158 ---------------- 05Y 09M 28D after discovery ----- 05Y 09M 28D after first obs

2005-12-13.52 : 136472 Makemake ---------------- 00Y 03M 18D prior to discovery ----- 49Y 10M 14D after first obs

2005-03-10.25 : 2002 CP154 ---------------- 03Y 01M 04D after discovery ----- 03Y 01M 04D after first obs

2005-03-12.19 : 2005 CG81 ---------------- 00Y 01M 02D after discovery ----- 00Y 01M 02D after first obs

2005-03-12.20 : 2002 CU154 ---------------- 03Y 01M 06D after discovery ----- 03Y 01M 06D after first obs

2005-03-12.20 : 150642 2001 CZ31 ---------------- 04Y 01M 09D after discovery ----- 04Y 01M 09D after first obs

2005-03-12.21 : 80806 2000 CM105 ---------------- 05Y 01M 06D after discovery ----- 05Y 01M 06D after first obs

2005-09-28.31 : 2004 VU75 ---------------- 00Y 10M 19D after discovery ----- 00Y 10M 19D after first obs

2005-10-12.44 : 416400 2003 UZ117 ---------------- 01Y 11M 18D after discovery ----- 02Y 10M 29D after first obs

2005-10-12.45 : 90377 Sedna ---------------- 01Y 10M 28D after discovery ----- 15Y 00M 17D after first obs - accepted

2005-12-06.28 : 2003 UB292 ---------------- 02Y 01M 13D after discovery ----- 02Y 01M 13D after first obs - accepted

2005-12-06.46 : 150642 2001 CZ31 ---------------- 04Y 10M 03D after discovery ----- 04Y 10M 03D after first obs

2006-01-07.47 : 2011 GM27 ---------------- 05Y 02M 26D prior to discovery ----- 05Y 02M 26D prior to first obs

2006-02-01.24 : 2000 WT169 ---------------- 05Y 02M 10D after discovery ----- 05Y 02M 10D after first obs - accepted

2006-05-24.15 : 2002 GV31 ---------------- 04Y 01M 18D after discovery ----- 04Y 01M 18D after first obs

2006-05-25.22 : 2005 JR179 ---------------- 01Y 00M 05D after discovery ----- 01Y 00M 05D after first obs

2006-05-25.22 : 53311 Deucalion ---------------- 07Y 01M 07D after discovery ----- 07Y 01M 07D after first obs

2006-05-25.22 : 364171 2006 JZ81 ---------------- 00Y 00M 24D after discovery ----- 02Y 01M 29D after first obs

2006-09-19.31 : 2001 QP297 ---------------- 05Y 01M 00D after discovery ----- 05Y 01M 00D after first obs

2006-11-23.51 : 1999 CD158 ---------------- 07Y 09M 13D after discovery ----- 07Y 09M 13D after first obs

2007-02-21.34 : 1999 CD158 ---------------- 08Y 00M 11D after discovery ----- 08Y 00M 11D after first obs

2008-09-06.45 : 2005 RQ43 ---------------- 02Y 11M 28D after discovery ----- 02Y 11M 28D after first obs

2008-09-24.18 : 2003 QK91 ---------------- 05Y 00M 30D after discovery ----- 05Y 00M 30D after first obs

2008-10-02.12 : 308933 2006 SQ372 ---------------- 02Y 00M 06D after discovery ----- 03Y 00M 19D after first obs

2008-10-02.26 : 308379 2005 RS43 ---------------- 03Y 00M 19D after discovery ----- 09Y 02M 15D after first obs

2008-10-03.17 : 145480 2005 TB190 ---------------- 02Y 11M 05D after discovery ----- 06Y 10M 15D after first obs - accepted

2008-10-03.21 : 2005 RP43 ---------------- 03Y 01M 00D after discovery ----- 03Y 01M 00D after first obs

2008-10-03.24 : 2003 SN317 ---------------- 05Y 00M 08D after discovery ----- 08Y 00M 01D after first obs

2008-10-28.19 : 120178 2003 OP32 ---------------- 05Y 03M 02D after discovery ----- 18Y 03M 07D after first obs

2008-10-29.33 : 2008 ST291 ---------------- 00Y 00M 35D after discovery ----- 00Y 00M 35D after first obs - accepted

2008-10-29.40 : 2001 RZ143 ---------------- 07Y 01M 17D after discovery ----- 07Y 01M 17D after first obs

2008-10-29.41 : 2009 UF156 ---------------- 00Y 11M 19D prior to discovery ----- 03Y 08M 19D after first obs - accepted

2008-10-30.24 : 2003 QT91 ---------------- 05Y 02M 05D after discovery ----- 05Y 02M 05D after first obs

2008-10-30.25 : 2001 QO297 ---------------- 07Y 02M 11D after discovery ----- 08Y 02M 04D after first obs

2008-10-31.31 : 385201 1999 RN215 --------------- 09Y 01M 24D after discovery ----- 09Y 01M 24D after first obs

2008-11-01.39 : 2001 UP18 ---------------- 07Y 00M 13D after discovery ----- 07Y 00M 13D after first obs - accepted

2008-11-01.39 : 2002 VB131 ---------------- 05Y 11M 25D after discovery ----- 05Y 11M 25D after first obs

2008-11-06.35 : 55636 2002 TX300 ---------------- 06Y 00M 22D after discovery ----- 54Y 02M 10D after first obs

2008-12-22.20 : 136199 Eris ---------------- 05Y 00M 01D after discovery ----- 54Y 01M 19D after first obs - accepted

2009-01-16.06 : 2004 PW107 ---------------- 04Y 05M 03D after discovery ----- 05Y 04M 01D after first obs

2009-01-16.14 : 385201 1999 RN215 --------------- 09Y 04M 09D after discovery ----- 09Y 04M 09D after first obs

2009-01-17.19 : 1996 RQ20 ---------------- 12Y 04M 11D after discovery ----- 12Y 04M 11D after first obs

2009-01-17 or 21 : 2014 UM33 [not found because U=8 but the general area is confirmed] EDIT: currently searching EDIT EDIT: possible candidate found

2009-01-21.21 : 84522 2002 TC302 --------------- 06Y 03M 12D after discovery ----- 08Y 05M 16D after first obs

2009-09-16.42 : 2005 RQ43 ---------------- 04Y 00M 17D after discovery ----- 04Y 00M 17D after first obs

2009-10-15.15 : 303712 2005 PR21 --------------- 04Y 02M 06D after discovery ----- 04Y 02M 06D after first obs

2009-10-16.16 : 2003 QO91 --------------- 06Y 01M 23D after discovery ----- 06Y 01M 23D after first obs

Posted November 7, 2014 4:18 PM
by planetaryscience

update: My observations for 136199 Eris, 90377 Sedna, and 1999 CL119 were accepted by the IAU and orbits subsequently updated. 2004 XR190, 79360, 2003 UB292, and 2011 GM27 still awaiting acceptance.

Posted November 14, 2014 5:51 AM
by JeanTate in response to planetaryscience's comment.

Way to go planetaryscience! 😃 😄

When you have a chance, perhaps you could flesh out some details? How did you submit your observations to the IAU, for example, and when do you expect to find out about the ones "awaiting acceptance"? Also, if any zooite was interested in doing something similar, how would you advise them to proceed?

Oh, and CONGRATULATIONS!! (just in case I didn't mention it before 😉)

Posted November 14, 2014 2:43 PM
by planetaryscience

Well, you report the observations via email to obs @cfa.harvard.edu in a format somewhat described here but the following is a much easier-to understand method for reporting observations. Sorry if it seems a bit complicated, it's not my system.

Step 1: find the asteroid you want to report, and make sure it is most certainly the asteroid in question. This step may be quite often overlooked by most as an obvious step, but it is an important step nevertheless. The #1 error that people make is when reporting asteroid observations, they accidentally mistake stars, another asteroid, or something else, for the reported asteroid. A good way to confirm whether the asteroid you observe is the actual asteroid, or what asteroid it even is, go to the previously mentioned asteroid locator, where you simply put in the observatory code (645 for SDSS), the date and time (also like I said earlier, take the MJD from SDSS,or the SDSS query page

[select mjd_u, mjd_g, mjd_r, mjd_i, mid_z

from field

where fieldID=(given fieldID in the url of the 'field' section of explore, in a format similar to 0x082c02f481830000)])

Next, before we go further, as far as I can tell you cannot report observations from Dr7 because its fields do not work in the SDSS query page, and as such it can only show mid to 4 decimal places in the field, which is, according to Gareth Williams (the associate director of the MPC;) not accurate enough for the observation to be reported, with between 5 and 6 decimal places the maximum. 4 decimal places is 8.6 seconds difference, 5 decimal places is 0.86 seconds, and 6 decimal places is 0.086 seconds.

Now, back to the asteroid locator, put in the RA and DEC in hexadecimal, which is another hurdle for Dr7 to get over, but if you really want to know, open an excel document and put in the following calculations into four separate columns, each with a label near them indicating Decimal, H, M, and S.

put the RA decimal location into the first, and then in the second put ([decimal]/15) which gives you the RA in hours. Now for the minute section, put ([H]-(ROUNDDOWN([H], 0)))*60
and then in seconds, ([M]-(ROUNDDOWN([M], 0)))*60. Now you have the location in Hours, Minutes, and seconds. Ignore the decimals except for seconds. The exact same is for declination, except you don't have to do ([decimal]/15). Otherwise proceed normally.

Now for reporting. Open a new email, and put the following, each on separate lines.

COD 645 [observatory code]

MEA [first initial] [last name]

TEL 2.5-m reflector + CCD [observation type]

BND V [band of observation]

COM [whatever you want]

NUM [number of observations]

ACK [send email to you acknowledging observation]

Then put the following, which is in an extremely specific format, so listen closely:

[lines 1-5] the numbered designation of an asteroid, such as 90377 Sedna. If the designation is more than 99999, see below comments and notes.

[lines 6-12] The provisional designation of an asteroid, such as 1999 CL119. Also see below comments and notes.

[line 13] discovery asterisk [*] to indicate that the observation is a new discovery of an asteroid. If it is a new asteroid, you include the temporary designation in line 13, which can be anything you want as long as it doesn't overlap with an existing type of designation. For new asteroids, I put 2014-01, 2014-02, 2014-03, and so on.

[line 14] first note, indicating various comments, viewed in total here.

[line 15] second note, indicating the type of observation, in this case for SDSS, the default is always C.

[lines 16-32] the date of the observation, given as YYYY MM DD.TTTTTT

[lines 33-44] the RA of observation, given as HH MM SS.DD

[lines 45-56] the DEC of observation, given as DD MM SS.D

[lines 57-65] blank.

[lines 66-71] the observed magnitude, given as MM.M [band described in BND section above]

[lines 72-77] blank.

[lines 78-80] observatory code, in this case always 645.

Example observation [dashes not included except for negative declination indication]:

COD 645

MEA E. Xample

TEL 2.5-m reflector + CCD

BND V

COM transneptunian object 2011 GM27. This line can be anything

NUM 3

ACK

-----K11G27M--C2006-01-07.47020611-21 23.60--10 03-12.6-------21.4 V------645

-----K11G27M--C2006-01-07.47103511-21 23.59--10 03-12.6-------20.9 V------645

-----K11G27M--C2006-01-07.47352311-21 23.58--10 03-12.7-------21.7 V------645
```
   ^provisional designation

            ^CCD

             ^YYYY MM DD.DDDDDD

                            ^RA       ^DEC

                                                   ^MAG
                                                            ^CODE
```
For numbered designations more than 99999, the designation is indicated with a letter instead of a number first. 103504 = A03504. 372493 = b2493

100000 = A

110000 = B

120000 = C

130000 = D

140000 = E

150000 = F

160000 = G

170000 = H

180000 = I

190000 = J

200000 = K

360000 = a

370000 = b

380000 = c

390000 = d

400000 = e

For provisional designations, see the packed designation system.

Aside from that, there isn't much to tell about the observation format except that going into enough detail to eliminate all possibility of making an error when reporting one would make this post too long for anyone to bother reading.

Lastly, the time it takes for observations to be 'accepted' is quite a while. It depends exactly on the object. For objects with well-known orbits, like the first three objects that were accepted, the time from report to acceptance is about 15-30 days. For newly-discovered objects reported immediately, the time is only a day or two; but for ones reported from several years previously, the time space is often a very long time, sometimes not at all, because with only 3 observations, you cannot predict an object's orbit well enough to find it at the present unless you were to find a chance observation of the asteroid from only a day or two before or after the first reported observations. For unnumbered objects with no well-known orbit, or precovery observations of asteroid, it can take a month or two, sometimes up to a year for the observations to be accepted. The observations, if formatted correctly, are somewhat accepted at first, but then either a computer or a person checks the expected position of the asteroid, and sees how it fits with the reported observations, and then the residuals (distance from expected to reported position) of the asteroid, and sees if the residuals stay about the same. If they change, then the observed asteroid is traveling in a different direction than the asteroid you are reporting. After few more confirmations to make sure it's the right asteroid, it stays waiting in a list of observations for a while until the minor planet center publishes its periodic paper on the observations of asteroids, which often covers several hundred thousand observations of several thousand asteroids. At that point, the observation is published to the minor planet center and subsequently added to the list of observations.

Posted November 14, 2014 8:47 PM
by zutopian

New paper:

Reassessing the formation of the Inner Oort cloud in an embedded star cluster II: Probing the inner edge

The detached object Sedna is likely at the inner edge of the Oort cloud, more precisely the inner Oort cloud (IOC). Until recently it was the sole member of this population. The recent discovery of the detached object 2012 VP113 has confirmed that there should be more objects in this region. Three additional IOC candidates with orbits much closer to Neptune have been proposed in the past decade since Sedna's discovery: 2000 CR105, 2004 VN112 and 2010 GB174. (...)

R. Brasser, M. E. Schwamb
(Submitted on 7 Nov 2014)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.1844

PS: The co-author M. E. Schwamb is a science team member of the Zooniverse projects Planet Four & Planet Hunters!

Posted November 15, 2014 7:30 AM
by c_cld in response to planetaryscience's comment.

@planetaryscience

"as far as I can tell you cannot report observations from Dr7 because
its fields do not work in the SDSS query page"

Report from DR7 (or previous 7) have been always possible: see example posted in GZ for comets:
OOTD SDSS comets . (SDSS sql functions are available to perform date/time reformatting)

You could also query the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Moving Object Catalog which list astrometric and photometric SDSS data for 471,569 moving objects observed prior to March 2007.
If your find is in this catalog, no need to report to MPC! 😃

Posted November 15, 2014 10:55 AM
by planetaryscience in response to C_cld's comment.

Well quite a few minor planet observations of main-belt asteroids have already been reported to the minor planet center and accepted, many of the fainter (mag >19) objects have not been reported, especially trans-neptunian objects, because they aren't obvious as much brighter and faster-moving objects.

Posted November 15, 2014 6:25 PM
by planetaryscience

(145480) 2005 TB190 found from 2008-10-03 ----- 06Y 10M 15D after first obs ----- 02Y 11M 05D after discovery

expected mag=21.44 observed mag=~20.95

1237678617409225313

Posted November 21, 2014 7:57 PM
by planetaryscience

And now for a complicated one. The following is the expected position of 2000 WT169 on 5:51 AM (UTC) 2006-02-01, reportedly magnitude 22.76, next to a couple of stars:

Now to my surprise, there is nothing there; or at least nothing easy to find. Dr7 and Dr8 are of the same date, so that won't be any help. Fortunately there are a number of surveys of the same area that I can go to. now, to wikisky! Put into the search location USNOA2 1050-01435685, which is the fainter of the two stars to the left of the expected position. They are clearly visible in DSS:

but there's not much else to see. Aside from the barred spiral galaxy, orangish star to the bottom left, and whitish object which I would have otherwise assumed to be the asteroid to the right.

Unfortunately the asteroid is not only magnitude 22.7, which is much fainter than most surveys can see, but it's right next to a magnitude 14.6 and 16 star. However there are still a few surveys left. Go to the WISE image search, put in the same star, and lo and behold, there is nothing there except the stars.

Unfortunately there aren't many other surveys that go to magnitude 22.7, with SDSS being one of the only surveys to see to magnitude 23 with a resolution less than an arcsecond.

If anyone is knows of a number of easy-to-access image surveys in the area coughUKIDSScough, please inform me if they can help identify which object is the asteroid.

Until then, I am currently on vacation until Sunday of this week, and will put a more hearty search in for detailed image access websites for surveys, and attempt to narrow down the non-asteroids.

P.S. I am betting on the object just to the left of the fainter star of the two, although it's reportedly mag 23.6 in SDSS which is dimmer than expected

Posted November 21, 2014 11:08 PM
by planetaryscience

update: it was there the entire time; I did not account for star glare. Here is the asteroid:

no sdss ID

Posted November 22, 2014 4:45 AM
by planetaryscience

object: 2001 UP18

date: 2008-11-01

magnitude: 22.97

image:

slightly below center

url: (nearest object)

Posted November 27, 2014 4:04 AM
by planetaryscience

currently attempting to look for asteroid 2014 UM33 - with an observation arc of 2 days between 2014-10-22.34618 and 2014-10-24.377316 Date of SDSS image: 2009-01-17 04:44 AM UTC

if anyone can make observations of the currently ~20.6 magnitude asteroid right now, please do. RA=02 04 47 DEC=19 21 00

Posted November 27, 2014 4:55 AM
by planetaryscience

object: 2005 GX186

date: 2001-02-20 [4 years before discovery]

magnitude: 23.22

image:

to the right of center

url: 1237654606403208144

Posted November 30, 2014 5:07 AM
by planetaryscience

object: 2012 BX85

date: 2003-02-01 [8 years before discovery]

magnitude:: 21.96

image:

faint-ish dot above left of center

url: 1237661126145606251

Posted November 30, 2014 6:09 PM
by planetaryscience

taking a short break from finding asteroids - an update in the meantime, all of my observations that were from after the asteroid was discovered were accepted. However none from before, which I find odd. There might be a special process to go through for precovery observations. In the meantime, see updates at my blog and the many subpages of my Wikipedia page.

Posted December 4, 2014 11:45 PM
by planetaryscience

Back!

object: 2005 EO304

date: 2000-05-04 [5 years before discovery]

magnitude: 22.83

image:

url: 1237651735758897880

Posted December 24, 2014 4:28 AM
by planetaryscience

object: 2008 ST291

date: 2008-10-29

magnitude: 21.91

image:

url: 1237678860619088443

Posted December 24, 2014 7:37 PM
by planetaryscience

object: (33001) 1997 CU29

date: 2004-02-17

magnitude: 23.07

image:

url: 1237664668421259934

Posted December 29, 2014 4:30 AM
by planetaryscience

Update: I'd talked to Timothy Spahr and he managed to get observations of 2014 UM33 on December 19, 20, and 23. This brought the uncertainty down to U=8- beginning my second attempt at precovery observations of the possible dwarf planet.

Posted December 31, 2014 7:23 PM
by DZM admin

Seems to me that you're doing some seriously awesome work, @planetaryscience ; thanks for keeping us updated!

Will be very interested in what 2014 UM33 does turn out to be. Are you saying that you now think it may be a dwarf planet? (Earlier in this thread, you called it an asteroid?)

Posted January 2, 2015 3:23 PM
by planetaryscience

I lazily assign the term asteroid to any non-planet in the Solar System, but if asked to define the objects I've observed so far as
"asteroid" or "dwarf planet" - I would give you an estimate of the absolute magnitudes of all the asteroids/dwarf planets/minor planets I've observed so far:

136199 Eris - -1.2

90377 Sedna - 1.5

2008 ST291 - 4.3

2014 UM33 - 4.3/4.4

2004 XR190 - 4.4

(145480) 2005 TB190 - 4.7

2011 GM27 - 5.2

79360 Sila-Nunam - 5.2*

2012 BX85 - 5.6

2003 UB292 - 5.7

2001 UP18 - 5.9

1999 CL119 - 6.0

2000 WT169 - 6.1

2005 EO304 - 6.3

(33001) 1997 CU29 - 6.5

2005 GX186 - 6.8

*Sila-Nunam is a binary asteroid/dwarf planet/minor planet, and the given absolute magnitude is the combined absolute magnitude of both

Eris is officially accepted as a dwarf planet

Sedna is almost certainly a dwarf planet

2008 ST291 is probably a dwarf planet

2004 XR190 is a possible dwarf planet

2005 TB190 is also a possible dwarf planet

2011 GM27 is an unlikely dwarf planet

Beyond that most of the rest of them are thought to be not massive enough to be dwarf planets. Estimates of 2014 UM33's size place it between 340 and 770 kilometers; compared to Ceres (476 kilometers); Pluto (1184 kilometers) and Sedna (995 kilometers).

So in summary, yeah it's probably a dwarf planet.

Also I found another asteroid/dwarf planet/minor planet:

object: 2002 CP154 (absmag=6.5)

date: 2005-03-10

magnitude: 22.90

image:

above left of center

url: 1237667734491038501

Posted January 2, 2015 6:24 PM
by planetaryscience

object: 2006 BR284

date: 2004-03-18 (2 years before discovery)

magnitude: 23.28

image:

below right of center

url: 587739154428986075

Posted January 3, 2015 9:06 PM
by planetaryscience

object: 2009 UF156

date: 2008-10-29 (1 year before discovery*)

magnitude: 22.77

image:

url: 1237678859558519316

*This observation from the asteroid is from before the asteroid was discovered- still a precovery image- but an older precovery image from 2005 has already been accepted by the Minor Planet Center.

Posted January 4, 2015 9:52 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2005 EW318

date: 2002-12-14 (3 years before discovery)

magnitude: 22.91

image:

left of center

url: 1237660670354719680 NEAREST ID AVAILABLE

Posted January 5, 2015 1:26 AM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2000 QC226

date: 2001-09-19

magnitude: 22.89

image:

above left of center

url: 1237656536978096979

Posted January 5, 2015 2:10 AM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2005 BV49

date: 2004-12-12 (1 year before discovery*)

magnitude: 23.33

image:

url: 237667142862177217 NEAREST ID

*Older precovery images from 2002 exist

Posted January 5, 2015 5:09 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2001 QQ322

Date: 2000-09-03 (1 year before discovery)

magnitude: 22.79

image:

url: 587726877277225306 NEAREST AVAILABLE ID

Posted January 6, 2015 4:35 AM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2002 CT154

Date: 2002-03-05 (20 days before discovery)

magnitude: 22.97

image:

url: 1237658422482829358 NEAREST ID AVAILABLE

Posted January 6, 2015 4:48 AM
by planetaryscience

PS I am updating the list of asteroids actively- on page 2 of the discussion.

Posted January 6, 2015 4:50 AM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2005 JR179

Date: 2006-05-26

magnitude: 22.56

image:

below right of center

url: 1237671991346855992

Posted January 6, 2015 5:02 PM
by planetaryscience

Taking a pause from observations until the next MPC (minor planet circular) is published, either today or tomorrow.

Posted January 7, 2015 4:34 PM
by planetaryscience

2015-01-11 minor planet circulars update:

Updates:

2006 BR284 - accepted

2009 UF156 - accepted

2005 EW318 - accepted

2005 BV49 - accepted

2001 QQ322 - accepted

2001 CT154 - accepted

more asteroids

objects reported yesterday:
Object: 53311 Deucalion

Date: 2006-05-25

magnitude: 23.06

image:

object to right of center

1237671955914752795

Posted January 11, 2015 5:16 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2000 ON67 found(????)

Status unknown; ephemeris location for date about 10 hours of RA and 5 hours of DEC off from reported position; ephemeris position out of SDSS field by several arcminutes.

Posted January 11, 2015 5:22 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2002 VB131

Date: 2008-11-01

Magnitude: 22.83

image:

url: 1237678906256654936 NEAREST ID

Posted January 11, 2015 9:34 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2001 RZ143

Date: 2008-10-29

Magnitude: 22.66

image:

above right of center

url: 1237678859019551695

Posted January 11, 2015 10:33 PM
by planetaryscience

I found (82075) 2000 YW134...

...But it looks like someone already found it

Posted January 11, 2015 10:52 PM
by planetaryscience

I've delayed reporting this one for a few days because I've been busy...

Object: 2002 CU154

Date: 2005-03-12

magnitude: 22.93

image:

url: 1237667782280283077 nearest ID

Posted January 13, 2015 4:16 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2001 QO297

Date: 2008-10-30

magnitude: 22.36

image:

below right of center

URL: 1237678881019134344 joint ID with brighter galaxy above/to the left of the asteroid

The asteroid to the below left is 2008 SD237.

Posted January 14, 2015 3:43 AM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2000 CL104

Date: 2002-12-07

magnitude: 22.79

image:

below left of center below and to right of bright star.
1237660584983461943 NEAREST ID

I'm not sure if this is the correct object, but it's better reporting an observation that is probably right and have it not be accepted than not report one that is right.

Posted January 14, 2015 4:34 AM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2003 FH127

Date: 2003-04-01

magnitude: 23.01

image:

lower left of image, blue object left of brownish/grey galaxy in the line formed by the orange star and the yellow galaxy at the bottom center.

URL: 1237661970103862011

2003 FH127 is the first low-certainty transneptunian object I've been able to find. specifically, it has only been observed 5 times between March 30th, 2003 and April 21st, 2003. Fortunately, the SDSS telescope happened to be searching through the sky at the correct time and was able to find 2003 FH127 only a few arcseconds off its expected position.

Based on the amount of low-certainty TNOs out there, and the useful date span out there, chances are there are at least 2 or 3 other objects like 2003 FH127 that I should be able to find in this precovery project.

Posted January 14, 2015 5:13 AM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2005 CG81

Date: 2003-03-12

magnitude: 22.88 (SDSS thinks it's lower)

image:

URL: 1237667783889584814

Posted January 14, 2015 3:52 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: (364171) 2006 JZ81
Date: 2006-05-25

magnitude: 22.92

image:

url: 1237671956988756957 nearest available ID

Posted January 14, 2015 4:26 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2003 SN317

Date: 2008-10-03

Image:

url: 1237678620104786849

Posted January 15, 2015 2:09 AM
by planetaryscience

I would have been more active posting asteroids recently, except I've been doing a separate project that used the same JPL ephemeris page, and I accidentally found the ephemeris of the asteroids from the viewpoint of the Sun.

Posted January 16, 2015 4:31 PM
by DZM admin in response to planetaryscience's comment.

No worries! You keep doing your thing at your pace. 😃

It's continually impressive to me to see some of the high-quality science being done on these boards!

Posted January 16, 2015 5:07 PM
by planetaryscience

Resuming my search in wave 5 of observations

Object: 2000 CN105

Date: 2003-12-25

Magnitude: 21.77

Image:

1237664130479621035

Posted January 17, 2015 5:08 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2004 VD131

Date: 1999-10-14 (4 years before discovery)

Magnitude: 22.68

Image:

center left

url: 1237649955483943528

Posted January 18, 2015 1:16 AM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2003 QT91

Date: 2008-10-31

Magnitude: 23.05

Image:

center left

url: 1237678880481281131 nearest ID

Posted January 18, 2015 6:34 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2000 CO105

Date: 2004-03-17

Magnitude: 22.99

Image:

center

url: 1237664835388637427 note: magnitudes are off because of association with nearby objects

Posted January 19, 2015 1:05 AM
by Budgieye moderator

"Use query to mark objects" instructions here. I need help deciding what you are pointing to.

EDITED:

To make an arrow in dr8 from SkyServer , open up Finding Chart, and paste these co-ordinates in the white box.

ra, dec

125.69843,20.5656

and click the Get Image button.

This image is from dr7, but I hope it helps.

Posted January 19, 2015 5:42 AM
by planetaryscience

I edited the image directly, because I wasn't able to get the "use query to mark objects" to open:

Posted January 21, 2015 2:41 AM
by Budgieye moderator

To make an arrow in dr8 from SkyServer , open up Finding Chart, and paste these co-ordinates in the white box.

ra, dec

125.69843, 20.5656

and click the Get Image button.

http://skyserver.sdss3.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237664835388637427

Though I think I like the white object better as a possible target.

Posted January 21, 2015 7:07 AM
by c_cld

same in DR12
http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/DR12/ImgCutout/getjpeg.aspx?ra=125.69843934&dec=20.56448168&scale=0.09903175&width=512&height=512&opt=GL&query=ra, dec 125.69843,20.5656&Grid=on&Label=on

Naturally, replace the parameter values with your own, in particular after '&query= ' to mark your object(s).
You could also change the center point 'aspx?ra dec ' for having the grid through the center.

Posted January 21, 2015 9:26 AM
by planetaryscience

The white object couldn't have been the object in question, because the asteroid is supposed to be magnitude 22.99, near the limits of SDSS resolution, and with experience looking at dim asteroids, the white object is closer to magnitude 21.5 or 22.

Posted January 21, 2015 4:16 PM
by planetaryscience

also,

Posted January 21, 2015 4:19 PM
by Budgieye moderator

It depends if you want to use the purple triangle to point to an object, or to encircle it.

Posted January 21, 2015 10:19 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: 2000 QE226

Date: 2000-09-03

Magnitude: 22.74

Image

Lower center left

url: 1237652599573512886

Posted January 24, 2015 3:26 AM
by planetaryscience

Object (160091) 2000 OL67

Date 2000-09-03

Magnitude: 23.05

Image:

left of center, covered by crosshairs. More easily visible below.

bluish object left of center

url: 1237652599572201965 nearest ID

Posted January 24, 2015 2:38 PM
by c_cld

@planetaryscience

do you mean ra 337.36 dec -8.978 ?

Posted January 24, 2015 3:16 PM
by planetaryscience in response to C_cld's comment.

Yes.

Posted January 24, 2015 10:41 PM
by planetaryscience

I will be resuming the TNO search project later this month. I've done significant research in the last few months that will enable more precoveries of TNOs; possibly as many as 50 more.

Posted March 27, 2015 3:05 PM
by planetaryscience

It's a bit early, and technically it's not a TNO but I found 10199 Chariklo from images on May 5th, 2000:

Dr7

587726031696035984

100% certainty; Dr8 images of the exact same area:

Posted March 29, 2015 2:35 AM
by Budgieye moderator

Amazing. 😃 Which data set is the first image from? dr7 ? and the 2nd is dr8.

Question? I had thought that dr7 and dr8 were from the same photos, just processed differently? Is there any chance it was erased by software? I know that comets and asteroids were being removed.

Posted March 29, 2015 2:58 AM
by c_cld

Lot of areas have been imaged more than once in SDSS. The successive DR6,7,8 -12 display only one frame in skyserver thumbnail or chart / navigate tool, generally the recent one.

If you look at Coverage Check — Imaging you'll find for ra=144.1967453, dec=1.07863493 this result:

Imaging Coverage

Run / Camcol / Field

1458 / 1 / 129

1239 / 6 / 159

1907 / 1 / 144

756 / 6 / 189

1462 / 2 / 125

756 / 6 / 190

1462 / 2 / 126 (with Chariklo)

1458 / 1 / 130

If you want to see 10199 Chariklo (1997 CU26) Classification: Centaur on DATE-OBS= '2000-05-05'
TAIHMS = '04:28:52.70' you need the frame http://dr12.sdss3.org/sas/dr12/boss/photoObj/frames/301/1462/2/frame-irg-001462-2-0126.jpg and zoom in bottom left corner!

below cutout turned North up, East left: http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/DR7/ImgCutout/getjpeg.aspx?ra=144.1967453&dec=1.07863493&scale=0.396127&width=512&height=512&opt=GL&query=&Grid=on&Label=on

ObjId = 587726031696035984

Posted March 29, 2015 2:53 PM
by planetaryscience

Object: (160256) 2002 PD149

Date: 2001-09-19

Magnitude: 22.89

Image:

slightly left of center

url: 1237656538054788107

Posted April 2, 2015 4:50 PM
by Budgieye moderator in response to C_cld's comment.

Thank you for the explanation C-Cld. 😃

Posted April 3, 2015 7:58 AM
by mschwamb translator

Hiya planetaryscience,

A long time ago Bill Keel asked me to take a look at this thread since the other half my life (and my thesis) before Planet Four and before Planet Hunters was focused on the Kuiper belt and detecting planetesimals beyond Neptune. Apologies for only getting around to it now, time got the better of me on this one. I'm still focusing my research that's not involved with citizen science on the small bodies in the Solar System today.

It sounds like you're refining orbits of known objects with Sloan data and submitting these observations to the minor planet center which is fantastic. So I don't have any advice. Sounds like you've got it all covered. Thanks for recovering these objects, it helps keep their positions secure and known to high precision in the future so we can point telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope, Kepler, and the Keck telescopes at them.

You might also find this tool handy if you're looking for other datasets to recover known KBOs. That tool looks through images stored at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre for an inputted orbit and provides back all the images that might have the moving object in it for additional orbit recovery/refinement.

Cheers,

~Meg Schwamb

Posted April 5, 2015 7:18 AM
by planetaryscience in response to mschwamb's comment.

Thank you, and the tool has been helpful already, and will most likely be immensely helpful in my search for asteroids..

Object: 2002 GV31

Date: 2003-03-31

Magnitude: 22.18

url: 1237661950779654795
nearest ID

Object: 2002 GV31

Date: 2006-05-24

Magnitude: 22.25

url: 1237671932818489592
nearest ID

Posted April 6, 2015 2:12 AM
by planetaryscience in response to mschwamb's comment.

Object: (385201) 1999 RN215

Date: 2008-10-31

Magnitude: 22.3

url: 1237678889055682616 nearest ID

Object: (385201) 1999 RN215

Date: 2009-01-16

Magnitude: 23.5

url: 1237679434527408322 nearest ID

Posted April 6, 2015 2:38 AM
by planetaryscience in response to mschwamb's comment.

Object: 2012 DR30 (2009 FW54)

Date: 2000-03-30

Magnitude: 20.8

Image:

url: 1237651067352646071

Posted April 6, 2015 3:19 AM
by planetaryscience in response to mschwamb's comment.

Object: (308933) 2006 SQ372

Date: 2008-10-02

Magnitude: 22.1

Image:

url: 1237678597538710318

Posted April 6, 2015 3:44 AM
by planetaryscience

Object: (150642) 2001 CZ31

Date: 2005-03-12

Magnitude: 22.1

Image:

url: 1237667781742559973

Object: (150642) 2001 CZ31

Date: 2005-12-06

Magnitude: 22.1

Image:

url: 1237670964850262638

Posted April 6, 2015 4:08 AM
by planetaryscience

Since last update, I've found about 10 more asteroids and plan to observe several more. The program has been immensely helpful in this search, and I'll update when I have more time on the weekend.

Posted April 9, 2015 2:18 AM
by planetaryscience

Observed list in order of report:

4/6:

2000 CJ105 (2002 02 13)

2000 CJ105 (2002 03 05)

2001 QP297 (2006 09 19)

(80806) 2000 CM105 (2005 03 12)

(303712) 2005 PR21 (2009 10 15)

4/7:

1996 RQ20 (2009 01 17)

2003 QO91 (2009 10 16)

2003 SQ317 (2002 09 05)

(79978) 1999 CC158 (2004 12 13)

2006 SF369 (2004 12 13)

(84522) 2002 TC302 (2009 01 21)

4/8:

136472 Makemake (2004 12 13)

(120178) 2003 OP32 (2008 10 28)

(143991) 2003 YO179 (2003 12 21)

2003 QK91 (2008 09 24)

(308379) 2005 RS43 (2008 10 02)

(416400) 2003 UZ117 (2005 10 12)

2005 RP43 (2008 10 03)

(126719) 2002 CC249 (2001 02 20)

2013 FZ27 (2001 02 20)

(55636) 2002 TX300 (2004 09 17)

(55636) 2002 TC300 (2008 11 06)

2004 PW107 (2009 01 16)

2004 VU75 (2005 09 28)

4/9:

2000 YB2 (2003 12 21)

1999 CD158 (2004 03 18)

1999 CD158 (2006 11 23)

1999 CD158 (2007 02 21)

2005 RQ43 (2008 09 06)

2005 RQ43 (2009 09 16)

(229762) 2007 UK126 (1999 10 14)

More available on discussion page 2

Posted April 11, 2015 8:49 PM
by Budgieye moderator

Amazing list. I am awed. and speechless (nearly)

Posted April 11, 2015 11:07 PM
by Budgieye moderator

There was a young fellow named Jake

Who pronounced the ice world as "Make-make"

Then he played some ice hockey

On rocky Mah-key Mah-key

On a methane and nitrogen lake.

Poem written to commemorate this occasion!

Posted April 12, 2015 5:18 AM
by Budgieye moderator

Talk can go out of date. To keep your discussion useful in the future, I recommend using the SDSS name on your list, and write out the OBjID numbers in full, not in the neat and tidy form. Don't edit the old posts, keep them unedited.

eg

SDSS J093531.78+150337.6 If everything else fails, we should recover image from this ObjID

http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237670964850262638

not

1237670964850262638 which may disappear from the post if there are problems with the Talk software.

Posted April 12, 2015 6:00 AM
by planetaryscience

A bit late, sorry. phase 6 finished, every observation accepted except 84522 and 55636 second observation.

Observation arc of possible dwarf planet 2013 FZ27 extended from 3 years to 13 due to my precovery observations.

Posted April 16, 2015 3:07 PM
by planetaryscience

More recent observations:

Object: 2000 QL251

Date: 2002-09-05

Date (rep): 2015-04-11

RA: 23 31 25.60

DEC: +00 03 59.8

DR: 7

Mag: ?

Exp. mag: 22.46

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr7/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=588015509266235535 (nearest)

Object: 2000 QL251

Date: 2003-09-28

Date (rep): 2015-04-11

RA: 23 35 56.67

DEC: +00 28 17.1

DR: 8

Mag: 22.6

Exp. mag: 22.47

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237663277925139030

Object: 2000 QL251

Date: 2008-10-03

Date (rep): 2015-04-11

RA: 00 06 29.34

DEC: +03 21 43.8

DR: 8

Mag: 22.7

Exp. mag: 22.52

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237678620102885931

Object: 2003 QA112

Date: 2009-10-15

Date (rep): 2015-04-11

RA: 23 21 38.06

DEC: -07 53 18.9

DR: 8

Mag: ?

Exp. mag: 22.84

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237680262922371839 (nearest)

Object: 120347 Salacia

Date: 2001-09-18

Date (rep): 2015-04-11

RA: 22 13 35.50

DEC: +12 09 16.9

DR: 7

Mag: 20.5

Exp. mag: 20.63

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr7/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587730773340520832

Object: (24835) 1995 SM55

Date: 1999-10-13

Date (rep): 2015-04-11

RA: 01 39 38.28

DEC: +12 16 03.6

DR: 7,8

Mag: 20.5

Exp. mag: 20.77

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237649920043647508

Object: (145453) 2005 RR43

Date: 2004-09-22

Date (rep): 2015-04-11

RA: 03 24 43.45

DEC: -01 01 09.6

DR: 8

Mag: 20.0

Exp. mag: 20.06

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237666299482210510

Object: (308193) 2005 CP79

Date: 2003-04-26

Date (rep): 2015-04-12

RA: 08 50 50.99

DEC: +26 46 53.5

DR: 7

Mag: 20.8

Exp. mag: 20.9

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr7/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=588017978336543123

Object: (308193) 2005 CP79

Date: 2004-03-17

Date (rep): 2015-04-12

RA: 08 58 13.16

DEC: +27 03 40.4

DR: 8

Mag: 20.8

Exp. mag: 20.92

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237664837540577864

Object: 2010 FC49

Date: 2002-12-11

Date (rep): 2015-04-12

RA: 11 49 49.75

DEC: +09 23 06.6

DR: 7,8

Mag: 21.9

Exp. mag: 22.14

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237660613440045519

Object: 2010 FC49

Date: 2006-01-06

Date (rep): 2015-04-12

RA: 11 57 31.09

DEC: +05 39 43.6

DR: 8

Mag: 22.0

Exp. mag: 22.10

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237671128591631206

Object: 2001 PK47

Date: 2008-11-02

Date (rep): 2015-04-12

RA: 00 49 58.99

DEC: +12 54 57.8

DR: 8

Mag: 22.5

Exp. mag: 22.33

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237678920209990266

Object: 2005 CA79

Date: 2002-01-09

Date (rep): 2015-04-12

RA: 08 07 48.04

DEC: +31 30 04.0

DR: 7,8

Mag: 20.8

Exp. mag: 21.52

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237657776073867993

Object: (119951) 2002 KX14

Date: 2005-06-06

Date (rep): 2015-04-12

RA: 15 47 56.16

DEC: -20 17 17.4

DR: 8

Mag: 20.6

Exp. mag: 20.51

ID: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr8/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237668628377960934

Posted April 16, 2015 4:28 PM
by planetaryscience

It seems Dr7 is broken for me at the moment, not sure if that's happening for anyone else, but either way, I suppose now is a good time to post the last couple weeks of observations. There's a lot of them so I'm just going to include the designations.

04/12/2015

2001 FJ194

04/16/2015

2011 UK412

(42301) 2001 UR163

04/17/2015

2010 TP182 (observed twice)

04/18/2015

1999 HG12

2001 QE298

(202421) 2005 UQ513

(168703) 2000 GP183

(55637) 2002 UX25

04/19/2015

2007 VK305

2004 HQ79

2012 VU113

2013 TV158 (observed twice)

04/28/2015

2003 SE413

2012 UN177 (observed twice)

2006 HG123

2012 YO9

2005 LC54

(35671) 1998 SN165

4/29/2015

2008 SP266 (observed twice)

2007 TZ417

(119956) 2002 PA149

2007 FO51

2006 RC103

2003 QQ91

2012 UL177 (observed twice)

2004 XR190 (observed twice, redo)

2011 GM27 (redo)

2006 WG206 (observed 4 times)

2003 TH58 (observed twice)

2007 FP51

4/30/2015 (cut short by SDSS website problems)

2003 YK179 (observed twice)

2001 QX322 (observed 4 times)

2008 CS190

(60458) 2000 CM114

2010 WN6

2005 SF278

(184212) 2004 PB112

5/1/2015 (also cut short)

(181868) 1999 CG119 (observed twice)

2002 VW130

2001 QH298

2001 QF298

(2000 CQ105 would have been observed if Dr7 didn't crash when I tried to observe it)

Posted May 2, 2015 4:35 AM
by planetaryscience

so I haven't updated this in a while, but my TNO search is almost completed, with all TNOs done being looked through, and I'm currently looking for any centaurs. So far, I've observed a large number of asteroids, I doubt I'll be able to list these individually, so I'll just include (as usual) a list of their designations:

5/4/2015

2006 AO98

5/5/2015

2008 CT190

2011 UZ410

(118228) 1996 TQ66 (observed 3 times)

2004 TV357

2010 VZ98

5/6/2015

(82158) 2001 FP185 (observed 3 times)

(91205) 1998 US43

(60620) 2000 FD8

2003 QX111 (observed twice)

2006 SG415 (observed twice)

2005 VZ112

5/7/2015

2002 VD138

2001 RU143 (observed twice)

2007 FN51

2004 HX78

2003 FJ127 (observed twice)

5/8/2015

(145474) 2005 SA278

2005 GV2210 (observed twice)

5/9/2015

2006 CJ69

2002 CZ248

(308460) 2005 SC278

2011 UK411

2011 UT410

(82155) 2001 FZ173

(26375) 1999 DE9 (observed twice)

(15789) 1993 SC

2007 JF43

2005 TN74

5/10/2015

2010 FD49

2004 VZ75 (observed twice)

1998 HH151

(69988) 1998 WA31

(143751) 2003 US292

2003 QB91

2007 LG38

5/11/2015

2004 VT75

90482 Orcus (observed twice)

1999 RW215

2000 CK105

5/12/2015

2003 UZ413 (observed twice)

(47171) 1999 TC36

5/13/2015

2006 UZ184 (observed twice)

2007 RT15

2003 FL127

(168700) 2000 GE147

5/14/2015

2006 SG369 (observed 3 times)

2004 EJ96

2005 GB187

(26308) 1998 SM165

2008 SO266

2008 LP17

2001 VN71

134340 Pluto (observed twice)

2001 QR322

(133067) 2003 FB128

2011 UV410 (observed twice)

2005 PU21

(432949) 2012 HH2

(84719) 2002 VR128 (observed twice)

5/15/2015

2004 TX357

2001 FU172

5/16/2015

(129746) 1999 CE119

1998 WV31

(385695) 2005 TO74 (observed twice)

2004 TU357

2011 UC411

38628 Huya (observed twice)

2003 SO317

1999 CM158

(55638) 2002 VE95

(143685) 2003 SS317

5/19/2015

2015 DB216 (observed twice)

2003 UT292

2005 EB299

(60608) 2000 EE173 (observed twice)

(309239) 2007 RW10

2008 AU138 (observed twice)

2006 UX184 (observed twice)

65489 Ceto

42355 Typhon

5/20/2015

(87555) 2000 QB243

2006 QP180

(29981) 1999 TD10

-Centaurs-

5/20/2015

2007 VL305

2002 PQ152

5/21/2015

(95626) 2002 GZ32

2007 TK422

2011 QF99

5/23/2015

2010 EO65 (moon spotted?)

54598 Bienor

330836 Orius

5/25/2015

(120061) 2003 CO1

2003 WV107

2007 RH283

(121725) 1999 XX143 (observed twice)

5/26/2015

2007 TJ422

5145 Pholus

(250112) 2002 KY14

2007 UM126

2060 Chiron

2007 VH305 (observed twice)

2003 QD112

(315898) 2008 QD4 (observed 3 times)

2008 HY21

2005 VD

5/27/2015

(380282) 2002 AO148

Posted May 29, 2015 3:16 AM
by planetaryscience

final update: I've completed a search of most Trans-Neptunian objects, all Centaurs, small groups of Jupiter Trojans, every asteroid with an inclination of 35 degrees or higher, and most asteroids in the asteroid belt with an absolute magnitude below 20. The search is completed with a total of over 600 observed objects, and over 1,800 observations. Simply for the difficulty of a reader going through a list of every single object, I will omit the list. However it can be found by browsing the recent MPO, MPC, and MPS reports:

http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html

A highlight of observations, though:

2015 DB₂₁₆ (third known Uranus co-orbital)

precovered to 2003-10-23

precovery distance (date of first obs-date of precovery in days): 4,145

precovery length ((date of first obs-date of precovery obs)/obs arc): 75x

(434620) 2005 VD (second most highly inclined minor planet in the Solar System)

precovered to 2001-12-20

precovery distance: 1,376

precovery length: 0.49x

note: precovery obs led to a numbered designation being assigned to 2005 VD

2013 FZ₂₇ (one of the largest possible dwarf planets discovered recently)

precovered to: 2001-02-20

precovery distance: 3,631

precovery length: 3.1

311P/PANSTARRS (a main-belt comet thought to be caused by a collision between 2 asteroids)

precovered to: 2005-03-12

precovery distance: 2,045

precovery length: 1.4

note: observations not accepted yet

P/2012 F5 (Gibbs) (another main-belt comet)

precovered to 2004-08-26

precovery distance: 1,848

precovery length: 1.4

Additionally, I have saved a record of every observation I've made. Again, to keep this from becoming exceedingly long, I omitted it, but if someone desires to see it, I will send the complete list to them in a private message.

Either way, after significant work for the better half of 2015, I can say that my projects are done, and that I have found at least 50% of precovery images of known TNOs available in SDSS data.

Posted August 7, 2015 1:10 AM