Minor Planets

This page is for minor planets, also called asteroids.  There are only a few minor planets that will look like anything more than a "dot" since they are so small.  But, I think they are cool anyway.  Actually they are all very cool...

1 Ceres, Lum, f10, 4-7-09, mag 6.7
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Dwarf Planet, 1st asteroid discovered, 950km in diameter

8 Flora, Lum, f5, 4-7-09
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Parent body of Flora type of asteroids, this meteor type comprises 38% of meteorites, 7.9 magnitude

14 Irene, Lum only, f10, 4/8/09, Mag 9
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My Grandmother's name is Irene! Named after the Greek goddess for peace. Discovered in 1851.

654 Zelinda, lum, f5, 2/4/09, 02:39 UT
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Very close opposition this year, about .8 AU, resides in asteroid belt, around 10 mag in this pic

2006 AS2, Lum, 2-4-09, 03:25 GMT, f5
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Near-Earth asteroid, passes within 9.2 Lunar Diameters of Earth on 2/10/09, 370m diameter

9 Metis - lum only, f/5, 11/25/08
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Opposition was 11/4. About 355km. A little over 1 AU when taken. Mag 9.

4 Vesta near Opposition - RGB f29 200%
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Vesta has the highest albedo (reflects a lot of light) of the big asteroids. Second largest.

5051 Ralph Lum only, taken in west TX
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08-07-04 at 06:46 and 07:16 GMT, The two close, brighter stars near Ralph are mag 13.6 and 14.9

3 Juno - LRGB with Powermate
lrgb-juno-c800g108lpt30007-.jpg
Third asteroid - discovered in 1804. Named after the highest Roman goddess

3 Juno - RGB with Powermate
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Tenth largest asteroid. Once classifed as a planet. Too small & irregular for dwarf planet now.

You can actually see a bit of shape with Juno.  The Lum shots show a little tail sort of that might be because of the large crater in one area.  It was like that on two separate nights, so it's probably the reason for the dim region - not sure though.  More info here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Juno . 

936 Kunigarde
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Discovered in September of 1920. It has been well-studied.

936 Kunigarde was around magnitude 14.5 - a little dimmer than Pluto.  It is near opposition but will be closer to us in 2009.  The little star to the upper right (very close) is magnitude 15 (for reference).