Jazzistentialism

After a long hiatus due to some serious site renovations, Luckas Observatory is back on-line and has immediately provided important follow up work for JPL on 2010 DJ1 – the fastest moving NEO yet tracked by us.

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D21 Shenton Park discovers a new Mars Crosser – designated 2009 TV. The object was discovered on October 8th, and confirmed shortly after by our sister station 926 (Tenagra Arizona). 2009 TV is  kilometer-sized object at magnitude 18.4. At its closest approach it gets to within 1.56 AU from the sun, and has a relatively high eccentricity of 0.41.

Thanks to Paulo’s pipeline for picking this one up, and the help of Tenagra Arizona in confirming the discovery.

In another first, 2008 WB59 was recovered by D21 and followed shortly after by our sister station Tenagra Arizona (926). The Australia/US recovery was coordinated by Paulo Holvorcem in South America. A truly global team!

The MPEC can be found here.

Under very challenging conditions (a near full moon), D21 Shenton Park recovers 2005 TY51. Recovered by us initially on August 28th, we had to wait through bad weather until September 3rd to confirm our observations. Fortunately most stations are ‘closed for full moon’ and we were lucky to secure the second night’s observations and the subsequent recovery despite intermittent cloud. At magnitude 20.2, this is our faintest recovery to date.

Thanks as always to our Tenagra collaboration, and Paulo’s uncanny skills.

The MPEC can be found here.

Luckas Obseratory (D21) takes advantage of a clear night after weeks of endless rain and among its numerous NEO submissions, manages an appearance in a special MPEC 2009-Q56 announcing a new NEO, 2009 QF31. Thanks as always to Paulo Holvorcem.

The MPEC can be found here.

Luckas Observatory (D21) as part of the Tenagra initiative recovered NEO 2004 RK9. Not seen since 2004, the magnitude 19.6 target represents the culmination of efforts to fine tune the telescope’s tracking, and allow longer un-guided exposures for fainter objects. Thanks to Paulo Holvorcem and his uncanny skill in the timely acquisition and measurement of this faint target under very difficult sky conditions.

The MPEC can be found here.