New Minor Planet Center observatory code: M30

Based on measurements of six main belt asteroids and a NEA for two nearby nights each I received a new MPC observatory code for the new position of my observation site. The MPC code is necesary in order to be able to report asteroids and other minor planet measurements to the Minor Planet Center. The code is provided after a set of asteroids measurements made with the equipment on site is sent to the MPC and after MPC confirms that the measurements reach the necesary precision in order to be used in research purposes. Of course there are some rules published on the MPC website about how many objects and of which type have to be reported for requiring an observatory code. More details here.

The new code is M30 and it was obtained for measuring asteroids between 14 and 17.5 magnitude. The targeted objects are :

(253) Mathilde – Main Belt Asteroid @ magnitude 14.1

(601) Nerthus – Main Belt Asteroid @ magnitude 14.2

(2292) Seili – Main Belt Asteroid @ magnitude 14.8

(3332) Raksha – Main Belt Asteroid @ magnitude 15.7

(4809) Robertball – Main Belt Asteroid @ magnitude 17.0

(6714) Montreal – Main Belt Asteroid @ magnitude 16.6

(10302) 1989 ML – Near Earth Asteroid @ magnitude 17.5

Observations were made in 5 different observing nights between 5 and 18 of May 2022. Each object was measured in two diffrent night in three diffrent positions each night. Due to the weather reasons ( weather was quite unstable in some of the nights ) the campaign needed five diffrent nights, despite the fact that techincally the job could be done in just two diffrent nights with perfect weather.

In some isolated cases also track & stack technique was used for the weakest object.

(10302) 1989 ML – NEA asteroid at 17.5 magnitude measured using stack&track approach

Asteroid at 18.8 magnitude visible and measurable with the new C11

After an test made few days ago with a 18.0 magnitude asteroid which was visible on a 16×45 seconds stack ( total TEXP = 12 minutes ) the first test on an object close to 19.0 revealed Asteroid 83175 is visible and easily measurable on a 64 x 45 seconds stack ( total TEXP = 48 minutes ) taken with the new equipment ( C11 ) during an evening with unstable sky. The sky got cloudy short over the sequence of pictures was taken. I was planing to do a second series of pictures after this one but i stopped the exposure after few pictures because the stars disapeared completly in just few minutes.

As saw in the following picture the image is little blurry because of the sky bad quality, but still the object is measurable. It seems that asteroids of magnitudes weaker than 19 could be accesible esspecialy on good skies. Some attempts on capturing such objects will be done next days.

Asteroid 83175 @ 18.8 magnitude captured with C11 + focal reducer + ATIK 383L+ mono used at 2×2 binning / 64 x 45 sec

Double stars measurement accuracy confirmed down to 5 arcseconds

One of my test objects J 1611 in the measurement process

Before starting a big series of double stars measurement I wanted to make sure that the current configuration which I start using in the last months is capable of producing scientific valuable data in close double star measurements. The older projects I had on double stars astrometry used different equipment and also different data reduction procedures and software. Now I capture wide field pictures using CPC8 Telescope and Canon camera and extract precise components coordinates for each component, using the rest of the stars from the field to determine the exact position of the picture ( using Astrometrica software ). Even if at some basic computations based on the equipment characteristics suggested me that I shall be able to get good enough accuracy for double stars down to a few arcseconds I wanted to confirm this by test measurements and started a long period of tests. This period was much longer than I expected mainly because of bad weather but also because of some mistakes I made ( which was very useful to help me learn a lot of interesting things ). I will not describe here more technical details about the techniques , equipment, problems and solutions because is not the right place here for this. These will go to a dedicated article about this project. Please feel free to contact me if you want to know such details before the article will be available ( which might take some time )

So.. finally I managed to confirm a decent accuracy for double stars down to 5 arcseconds in separation by succesfully measure some low speed double stars which has recent evaluations. The results are most clearly visible in the next graphs.

Shortly the average errors are 0.79 degrees on PA and 0.19 arcseconds on separation. Maximal errors obtained on the test sample is 1.28 degrees on PA and 0.41 arcseconds on separation. This means I can safely measure with good accuracy double stars down to 5 arcseconds separation. The limit might be pushed a little more but for the moment I stopped with the tests at the 5 arcseconds level and I intend to start a series of effective neglected double stars measures which are in this range.

The full field used to measure J 1611. Targeted object clearly visible in the center – down part of the image

Double stars measurement accuracy confirmed down to 5 arcseconds

One of my test objects J 1611 in the measurement process

Before starting a big series of double stars measurement I wanted to make sure that the current configuration which I start using in the last months is capable of producing scientific valuable data in close double star measurements. The older projects I had on double stars astrometry used different equipment and also different data reduction procedures and software. Now I capture wide field pictures using CPC8 Telescope and Canon camera and extract precise components coordinates for each component, using the rest of the stars from the field to determine the exact position of the picture ( using Astrometrica software ). Even if at some basic computations based on the equipment characteristics suggested me that I shall be able to get good enough accuracy for double stars down to a few arcseconds I wanted to confirm this by test measurements and started a long period of tests. This period was much longer than I expected mainly because of bad weather but also because of some mistakes I made ( which was very useful to help me learn a lot of interesting things ). I will not describe here more technical details about the techniques , equipment, problems and solutions because is not the right place here for this. These will go to a dedicated article about this project. Please feel free to contact me if you want to know such details before the article will be available ( which might take some time )

So.. finally I managed to confirm a decent accuracy for double stars down to 5 arcseconds in separation by succesfully measure some low speed double stars which has recent evaluations. The results are most clearly visible in the next graphs.

Shortly the average errors are 0.79 degrees on PA and 0.19 arcseconds on separation. Maximal errors obtained on the test sample is 1.28 degrees on PA and 0.41 arcseconds on separation. This means I can safely measure with good accuracy double stars down to 5 arcseconds separation. The limit might be pushed a little more but for the moment I stopped with the tests at the 5 arcseconds level and I intend to start a series of effective neglected double stars measures which are in this range.

The full field used to measure J 1611. Targeted object clearly visible in the center – down part of the image

 

MPC Observatory Code received

After two successful nights of observations in December 2015 ( 14 and 23 ) reported to MPC I’ve received a MPC Observatory Code ( L13 ) for my small observatory. The two observing nights was quite distanced because of the bad weather in December. I’ve measured 5 well known asteroids in that two nigths , almost all of them having 3 observations during a period of approximately one hour each night, resulting this way 29 measurements for the 5 objects which was submitted after a couple of days. The observed targets was: (589) Croatia, (622) Esther and (635) Vundtia , (747) Winchester , (888)  Parysatis