Getting Started
 Hunting Asteroids from Your Backyard
by Dennis di Cicco. This article, adapted from CCD Astronomy, details the
author's search for minor planets. He maintains that the discovery of minor planets
is easily in the grasp of any amateur that has an 8-inch telescope and a CCD.
Software for Minor Planet Astrometry
Astrometrica,
created by Herbert Raab is the standard in astrometry software for
amateurs. It is a tool for scientific grade astrometric and photometric data
reduction of CCD images. The position and magnitude of any object on a CCD image can
be measured with just a few keystrokes. Literally hundreds of minor planets have been
discovered using Astrometrica.
The Observer's Tool Corner
from JPL's Solar System Dynamics Site
A collection of tools designed for the solar system observer. Although most of these
tools are general in nature, some were designed specifically for the small-body observer.
Tools Currently Available
 | Ephemeris Generation - for all the
planets, natural satellites, asteroids and comets is available via a new forms-based
interface. |
| Object Identification - given an
observation date, location, and region of sky (and optionally other constraints), find all
asteroids and comets matching the constraints within the region. |
| What's Observable Tonight? -
given an observation date, location, and constraints (such as maximum magnitude and
maximum zenith distance), find all asteroids and comets that are observable on that night. |
Lowell Observatory
Asteroid Observing Services
| Critical list of
asteroids accesses a list of numbered asteroids (in several categories) and unnumbered
asteroids whose orbits can be usefully improved by further astrometric observation. The
numbered asteroids have, for various reasons, been inadequately observed, and the
unnumbered asteroids could perhaps be numbered after a modest astrometric effort. |
| Minimum Orbital Intersection
Distance is the minimum distance between the osculating orbits of two objects. It
indicates the closest possible approach of the two objects except where excluded by
protective resonance. |
| Asteroid Orbital Elements is an
ASCII file of high-precision osculating orbital elements, ephemeris uncertainties, and
some additional data for all the numbered asteroids and the vast majority of unnumbered
asteroids (multi-apparition and single-apparition) for which it is
possible to make reasonably determinate computations. |
| Asteroid Ephemeris
calculates and displays a topocentric astrometric ephemeris (J2000.0) for an asteroid.
Asteroid ephemerides derive from the Lowell Observatory asteroid database. |
| Asteroid Observability Chart
builds a chart which indicates when a particular asteroid is observable from a particular
site. |
| Asteroid Observing Strategy
builds a chart which indicates a possible observation strategy for an asteroid. The
strategy is designed to quickly define the asteroid's orbit well enough that it can be
numbered while reducing the total number of observations required. |
| Lowell Observatory
Near-Earth Object Search is a system designed to find Earth-crossing asteroids (ECAs)
and comets (ECCs), collectively known as near-Earth objects (NEOs). |
| USNO-A1.0 Star Catalog Web
Access creates a file with a list of objects selected from one of the U.S. Naval Observatory's (USNO) astronomical catalogs. |
| Asteroid finder charts
This page builds a PostScript finder chart for asteroids. The star positions are supplied
by the USNO-A1.0 catalog and the PPM catalog. The asteroid positions are supplied from the
Lowell Observatory asteroid database. |
| Information for
amateurs page is for those amateur astronomers interested in observing asteroids. |
IAU:
Minor Planet Center Resources
Services for Observers
|
