A part of the EU Erasmus+ Project StAnD is the observation of asteroids with the Faulkes Telescopes.
Before you start observing asteroids, we recommend that you make yourself familiar how to program observations with the telescopes. The toolkit using the „basic mode“ to submit observations is available here.
Below, you can find a selection of asteroids useful to observe.
Target List for August 2024:
(New moon: August 4th)
Easy:
2024 CR9, a PHA (Potentially Hazardous Asteroid), mag 18.0
Exposure recommendation: 6x 90 sec., 1m Telescope, Filter: SDSS-rp
Difficult:
2018 NC, a PHA (Potentially Hazardous Asteroid), mag 20.6
Exposure recommendation: 9x 45 sec., 1m Telescope, Filter: SDSS-rp
Most likely stacking of the images required.
2013 EW45, an Asteroid discovered with IASC / PanSTARRS by a German school, follow up required, mag 21.9
Exposure recommendation: 6 x 150 sec., 1m Telescope, Filter: SDSS-rp
Most likely stacking of the images required.
For the orbital elements required to program the observation, please follow these steps:
1) Go to this website of the Minor Planet Center.
2) Enter the asteroid name as written above as object.
3) For the „Format for elements output:“ further down, select „MPC 8-line“.
4) Then click on „get ephemerides / HTML page“ to receive the orbital elements.
To program the observation with the Faulkes Telescopes, you need to:
1) Login to LCO Observation Portal | Log in
2) Be sure that you are not using the „Basic interface“. In your personal profile, the tag „Use Basic Mode“ should not be active.
3) Cick on „submit observation“ and proceed as usual.
4) Select „1m Sinstro“ as Instrument.
5) Change Target Type from „Siderial“ to „Non-Siderial“.
6) „Scheme“ should be „MPC Minor Planet“.
7) Then enter the orbital elements. In case you are uncertain, move the mouse to the small questionmark in fromt of each field.
8) Proceed as usual.
This is also described in a detailed toolkit „Observing Asteroids with the Faulkes and LCO Robotic Telescopes“ which you can download.
Detailed toolkits how to measure asteroid positions with the Software „Astrometrica“ will be available here, soon.
Below you can download the cfg-file for the 1m telescopes for Astrometrica.
When you have measured the asteroid positions within Astrometrica, please send them to astrometry @ ftp-europlanet.eu . Please do not send them directly to the Minor Planet Center. We will check the data and do it for you.
Configuration Files for Astrometrica, including:
– 1m LCO telescopes
– 2m Faulkes Telescopes