MAP ALERT #285, July 26, 2008

As posted by Gerard Faure, MAP database manager

Hi to all,


Exceptionally, I send to you this MAP Alert to the announcement of the update of the MAP Database !

This update of the MAP Database contains 469 asteroids, then 27 more than the previous database on June 30,2008.

It is downloable at :
http://astrosurf.com/aude/map/MAP_DATABASE_measures.zip

and the recapitulative list of the MAP Database is at :
http://astrosurf.com/aude/map/MAP_DATABASE_recap.htm


...but I join them to this mail. It's a zipped Excel file for the MAP
Database and a zipped file.htm for the Recapitulative list.

This MAP database nows contains 5138 measures (previously 4991 measures),
than 147 complementary measures, mostly made by Gérard Faure, Roger Harvey
et Andrew Salthouse.

In addition to the measures of the 27 new asteroids entered in the MAP
database, many new measures have been made for 37 old MAP objets.

On the total of 469 asteroids of the database, 84 of them (17% of the
total) now have their original difference of magnitude explained by the
natural light
variability or by some inaccuracies of measures and then now have no need
of new measures, TANDIS QUE for about two tens objects, the MAP already has
a good estimate of the difference of H magnitude. The revised H magnitude
has been published for 16 asteroids in the Minor Planet Bulletin 34-4.

On the 385 asteroids interested by new measures, the actual magnitude
differences are :
< 0,3 mag for 45 asteroids
0,3 mag for 35 asteroids
0,4 mag for 57 asteroids
0,5 mag for 71 asteroids
0,6 mag for 51 asteroids
0,7 mag for 36 asteroids
0,8 mag for 25 asteroids
0,9 mag for 22 asteroids
1,0 mag for 10 asteroids

1,0 mag for 12 asteroids

indefined mag. 5 asteroids

For 213 of them (45% of the total), the active lightcurve makers have
permitted the knowledge of the data of asteroid lightcurve amplitudes.

A part of the 469 objects of the MAP already have been observed on some
oppositions :

0 opposition for 2 asteroids
1 opposition for 335 asteroids
2 oppositions for 95 asteroids
3 oppositions for 25 asteroids
4 oppositions for 8 asteroids
5 oppositions for 2 asteroids
6 oppositions for 2 asteroids

Nearly one hundred of MAP asteroids already observed during two oppositions
wait their third observed opposition to obtain probably the definitive
confirmation of their H magnitude difference and the publication of the
results !
Then we shall be very interested by your new measures of the MAP objects in
the future !

Good summer !
Gerard


Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map



***************************************************************


MAP Alert #284,July 21, 2008

Greetings MAP Observers!

Recent postings on the Minor Planet Mailing List highlight this call for observations
MAP alert.

Message 20855 from Lance Benner states recent radar observations of 2005 RC34
suggest this has a rough surface (perhaps an E type asteroid) and asks it any photometry is planned.

Message 20856 from Vishu Reddy states "we will be observing 2005 RC34 from NASA IRTF
to see if this is an E type object".

Message 20857 From Richard Miles write "Initial checks do not indicate that it exhibits a
high-amplitude lightcurve"

Such a series beggs to have visual sightings to confirm its predicted magnitude to complete
the coverage. A long time goal of mine to have so many methods complete with visual observations, always clouded out, or otherwise foiled again.

Tonight finds 2005 RC34 in a dark sky around 1h40mUT with the moon at -5 degrees.
I will try to check this out, predicted MPC value Mv 14.5. Anything other information
from readers?

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map


****************************************************************


Greetings MAP Observers!

MAP Alert #283, July 15, 2008

News from Andrew Salthouse and Gerard Faure and other brief news highlight this mid July MAP alert.

First lets review Andrew's message:


Hello all, July 9, 2008

I wanted to report on some recent observations, many of which involve magnitude discrepancies of at least 0.3mag.

First, however, my email address has changed to: ajsalthouse@comcast.net due
to my former ISP being bought out.

I have observed roughly a dozen asteroids since the last full moon, and half
of those involve apparent discrepancies in magnitude. My observations follow (NV means "not visible"):

Object Mo UTDate Pred Obsvd

1598 July 3.1632 14.7 NV
3.2014 14.7 NV
8.1667 14.5 14.8
8.2153 14.5 14.7
9.1319 14.4 14.5
9.2257 14.4 14.5

1836 June 28.1806 14.0 NV
28.2118 14.0 NV
July 3.1493 13.8 14.5
3.1944 13.8 14.5
8.1562 13.7 14.5
9.1215 13.7 14.5

1914 June 25.1424 14.3 NV
25.1910 14.3 NV
28.1458 14.3 14.8
28.1944 14.3 14.8
29.1597 14.3 14.6
July 3.1319 14.3 14.8

2511 June 22.1458 14.4 NV
22.1792 14.4 NV
25.1562 14.3 NV
25.1944 14.3 NV
28.1597 14.4 NV
28.1979 14.4 NV

2524 June 28.1736 14.4 NV
28.2083 14.4 NV
July 3.1562 14.3 NV
3.1979 14.3 NV
8.1632 14.1 NV
8.2118 14.1 NV
9.1250 14.1 14.7
9.1736 14.1 14.7
9.2292 14.1 14.7

5749 July 8.1945 14.5 NV
8.2257 14.5 NV
9.1806 14.4 14.7
9.2326 14.4 14.7

Please note the following: all times are rounded to the nearest 5min (eg, 5,
10, 15 min past the hour, etc.) Since almost all observations occurred
between 11pm and 1am local time EDT, some times repeat. Note that not one
of these was observed on the first or second try. 2511 was abandoned after
6 attempts. I was ready to abandon 2524 after 6 failures, but I met with
success on the night of July 7/8 (last night). All were fainter than
predicted, and I must presume that 2511 is at least 1/2 a magnitude fainter
than predicted, or I'm sure I would have seen it. 2524 was the most
southerly of the targeted objects. I do not pretend that my estimates are
accurate, but they should be directionally correct. At a minimum, 1836 and
2524 are quite a bit fainter than predicted; the others might be explained
by the observing conditions. Of course, the southerly declinations and the
high humidity this time of year are a hindrance both to finding these
objects and to accurately estimating their brightness. 1598 and 2524 are
near Jupiter, though not in the same telescopic field.

Has anyone else noted similar discrepancies? I wanted to give you all an
opportunity to confirm or deny these observations before the moonlight
becomes a problem. I will attempt to follow up on a couple of these myself
if the weather permits. Looking forward to hearing from you,

Andrew Salthouse <end report>

Gerard responds in a personal message below

Hi Andrew and Lawrence, July 12, 2008


Again, I was silent since some months, but not totally inactive. I shall do
a report of my observations tomorrow.

This evening, I just finished a French article on the possibilities of
astronomical observations in Chile.
My next goal will be to do my report to the MAP and after the sending of
the MAP Database already updated up to the beginning of July 2008
I shall include your last sure objects.

Now, I look at if I have data for your objects.

I verified and found one object in the MAP Database, among your new objects :

5749 1991 FV already observed during 2 oppositions by the MAP Members, with
F/1.3 mag of error. Observations in 1998 (2 observers) and 2002 (1 observer)
Your measures are for a third opposition, but the difference of magnitude
is this time very low (F/0.2 mag). It will be necessary to observe again
this object.

My asteroid bases, recently updated (not updated only for the two last
Harris catalogs of 2007 and 2008, by lack of free time), give :

1598 Paloque no known light curve and never observed by me
1836 Komarov " " " but observed by me in 1998, without mag
error
1914 Hartbeespoortdam " " " and never observed by me
2511 Patterson " " " " " " " "
2524 Budovicium Per.10.081-10.076 h / var. 0.16-0.17 mag and never
observed
5749 1991 FV no known light curve and never observed by me

Alas, I shall no possibility to observe again before the end of August, due
to the Moon after the bad weather this week-end and to the next holidays in
the West of France.

Soon
Gerard <end report>

Gerard follows with his large report on observations from July 13, 2008

Hi to all,


Despite a bad spring here and busy weeks, I reached to observe a few,
during five nights, in April, June and July 2008, at first with my CCD
camera, and visually in June and July. I observed many old MAP objects
notably to increase the observed oppositions for each of these objects. I
also imaged some "standard" asteroids (half-light curve < 0.08 mag) and the
open cluster M67 to continue my tests stopped since more than one year.

Then, the report of all the observations are below :

with TMu = Unfiltered measures with Tycho star comparisons
with V.... = predicted V mag, when measures not yet treated.


Night of April 25-26, 2008 with C8F and Sbig ST6 :
--------------------------------------------------
190 Ismene V13.7 standard asteroid
199 Byblis V13.8 " "
335 Roberta V11.7 " "
1199 Geldonia TMu 14.2 to 14.4 (6 measures) F/0.2 MAP Object
3446 Combes V16.2
4790 Petrpravec TMu 17.5 - 17.6 (2 measures) F/1.3 MAP Object
8059 Deliyannis TMu 15.9 to 16.1 (5 measures) F/0.1 MAP object


Night of April 26-27,2008 with C8F and Sbig ST6 :
-------------------------------------------------
3446 Combes V16.3
5559 1990 MV TMu 15.3 to 15.5 (3 measures) F/0.4 MAP Object
8059 Deliyannis UMr 15.3 rejected ? F/0.6 MAP object


Night of June 27-28,2008 with C8 and PL8mm eyepiece :
-----------------------------------------------------
598 Octavia v14.5
1679 Nevanlinna v14.9
1449 Virtanen v14.9-15.0-14.9 F/0.1-0.2 MAP Object
5518 Mariobotta v15.0-14.9 F/0.7-0.6 MAP Object
7778 Markrobinson v15.4-15.4 F/1.1-1.1 MAP Object - MARS-CROSSER


Night of June 28-29,2008 with C8 and PL8mm eyepiece :
-----------------------------------------------------
7778 Markrobinson v15.5 F/1.2 MAP Object - MARS-CROSSER
8567 1996 HW1 v15.6 AMOR 2


Night of July 04-05,2008 with C8 and PL8mm eyepiece :
------------------------------------------------------
1165 Inprinetta v14.3-14.2 F/0.5-0.4 MAP Object
1385 Gelria v14.5-14.7-14.7 F/0.2-0.4-0.4 MAP Object
6670 Wallach v14.9-15.0 F/0.8-0.9 MAP Object
2771 Pulzinov v16.0-16.0 F/0.5-0.5 MAP Object
5905 Johnson v16.3-16.2-16.3 F/0.7-0.6-0.7 NEW MAP OBJECT - HUNGARIA


New MAP object in 2008, (8059)Deliyannis was again nearly its predicted
magnitude at the end of April 2008. May be this asteroid is variable ?

I observed the MAP objects 1165, 1199, 1385, 5559, 5905, 6670 and 7778 for
the second opposition.
The new measures for (1385)Gelria and (5559)1990 MV eliminate nearly all
the discrepancy of magnitude seen during the first opposition; The
variability is certainly the reason of the old observations.
(5905)Johnson is a new MAP Object, but it was already observed in 1995
(before the MAP birth) by Roger also with a great discrepancy of magnitude
(F/0.9 and F/1.2). It is a binary Hungaria.
The asteroids 1165, 1199, 6670 and 7778 are fainter than predicted, as for
their first oppositions.

2008 is the third opposition for (2771)Pulzinov and (4790)Petrpravec.
The high discrepancy of about 1.0 magnitude was confirmed again two times
in 2008 for (4790)Petrpravec. The faintness of (2771)Pulzinov is less
important but also continuously fainter of about 0.4 magnitude.

We have four oppositions for (5518)Mariobotta with continuous magnitudes
fainter than predicted, but with averaged discrepancies from 0.1 to 0.7
mag. The averaged difference of H magnitude seems to be about 0.4
magnitude, with the impact of an unknown variability of may be 0.5 to 0.6
magnitude.

The new observations of old MAP objects are VERY useful to verify the
previous differences of magnitudes !

Actually, we have many old or new bright (predicted) MAP Objects to observe :
(1165)Inprinetta
(1385)Gelria
(1836)Komarov
(1914)Hartbeespoortdam
(2511)Patterson
(2524)Budovicium
(5749)1991 FV

Even if the 3 last minor planets are difficult, it will be very interesting
to verify their visibility or invisibility, notably for (5749)1991 FV seen
more fainter than predicted in the past.

The summer gives more opportunities to observe ! Then let go to the sky !
Good luck
Gerard < end report>

Its very nice to see success in these reports and to see magnitude estimating is still alive and well.


Now more news. I thank Richard Miles for his message

Re: MAP Alert #282
Dear Lawrence,

Glad you were interested enough to mention this discovery.
The attached is a preprint of a short article which is due to appear in the July 2008 issue of The Astronomer magazine: website http://www.theastronomer.org/.
<I have left the preprint off, but members should check out this site>

So, is this super fast object spun up by sun light, or, too small in diameter to be affected by sunlight
to spin wildly for millions of years? Your next mission Richard, should you decide to accept it,
is discover which is correct (please accept it). And yes this is a parody of the Mission Impossible TV show, sorry. Really, close observation of these very small objects can only be of high interest.

John Fletcher joins Richard Miles in "The Astronomer Group" May issue with his report of a light curve that suggests the H value of Eric 4954 should be corrected the H=12.4. I have not passed along the image to prevent any possible copyright issues, but am pleased he forwarded this information for us.

Hope I have covered all my message to date here.

Now on to website news. I have also changed ISPs, and will return to placing MAP's information
to the main ALPO webpages, little by little. I had used a personal page to save Rik Hill time
when MAP alerts were more active, but now they should return with our current lighter volume.
The pages will look better as well, as I will not be confined to the limits on my "free" page with
my ISP. So for now, should any one what to know our URL, tell them to write me for any information
they need.

Observing news. No asteroids yet, but a longer vacation coming next month will cure this for sure. After seeing our July 4th fireworks, we did have clear skies here, but not very clear to the south. So, I decided to use an image sent me by Marco Langbroek of the North American Nebula
to see if this was visible. I used my 20x80mm binoculars to indeed spot this, even "Florida and Mexico". Marco's image was the perfect guide and my earlier observations of the very low contrast
comet Holmes lead to success that would have been impossible otherwise. So my thanks go out the Marco and Comet Holmes in which will become a annual July visit.

Last, I am off a brief visit to a so called antique show that I will not bore you with. It was a bust,
but, I did see a 1956 CRITERION 4" reflector. This was already sold. But I did leave with something
to remember, as a man looked into the 167x eyepiece while it was pointed at his shirt. I was too far away to help him, but at least he tried!

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map


******************************************************************

MAP Alert #282, June 11, 2008

Greetings MAP Observers!

A power outage delayed MAP alert for June 11, 2008, as large storms covered the region yesterday.
My best wishes to members and hopes they avoided damage across the USA on these.

With no new reported asteroid observations, I will catch up on a few items of interest today.

Last month we had a few short messages to this list on Pluto being on a lifetime asteroid
list as it is now numbered in the minor planet catalog, as dwarf planet. Normal, direct posting
to the list are reserved to Brian Warner, Prof. Fredrick Pilcher, Richard Binzel, and of course
Gerard Faure. But not always. Rare times such as an observer seeing their 1000th asteroid
is quite accepted for direct postings and these were welcome. But in general a request to me for
posting to the list is best, and only in the rarest times might be denied. This is only to help in creation of the MAP alerts, and keeping things from becoming very hard to edit on my end. Should a regular "open" list be the normal state, the alerts would become only reviews of ideas already
posted.

But lets talk about the dwarf stuff a bit. I'm not one to really talk on this I guess.
I count 1 Ceres as an asteroid and Pluto as dwarf planet, so much for taking a clear stand on the subject. But, should I be contacted by any readers under my "Planets of Dawn" project, Ceres
is a dwarf for sure. Planets of Dawn or POD, is aimed at getting teachers to astronomy clubs
way ahead of the curve for spotting and imaging Ceres and Vesta. The idea is for schools to do enough homework in advance as to impress astronomy clubs enough to create useful field trips,
and whatever additional learning takes place under the stars the better. Would be nice to see this work. So my writing is in progress.

Small talk:

Brian Warner is now acting MPB editor, its a hard act to follow so don't try! Richard Binzel will be back of course.

WOW, what a find Dr. Richard Miles! The fastest rotating known asteroid to date is really something.
But I was a bit surprised to see the most coverage of this under a Sky and telescope alert,
perhaps I missed other more detailed reports on this. Any pages of interest I (and we) should know about, please update me, thanks.

Retro-imaging. Last alert I mentioned of all things taking an instant photo (not bad really) of the last lunar eclipse. Its seems Redefine magazine might just publish this, maybe, perhaps, could. They requested a complete image (not just the image area) of the polaroid photo. So perhaps this month
will yield a bio request for me and the good news. I have told my friends at work I plan to leave out I'm from another planet, after all how do you think I took it :-)

Header missing again? This message comes right from hotmail, as I just don't feel like moving over to my earthlink account today. We are changing local phone service here, so I may be moving along to yet another ISP, saving money in the process. Stay tuned.

Prof. Pilcher as been to the minor planet news with his success in photometry and problems
in alignment. Hope things are resolved. Sounds like New Mexico is a great place retire as far as
observing goes based on his published work.

More? This time next month (July 10-14) I will be away risking going gasaline broke at the BRIMFIELD ANTIQUE SHOW, around 250 miles south of here in Massachusetts. Observations are feel to be posted to the list at this time, placing them into alerts will follow. Something from astronomy or photography would make a nice find here.

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map




***************************************************************

MAP Alert #281, May 2008

Greetings MAP Observers!

A milestone in asteroid observing and an asteroid occultation
highlight this Sunday MAP alert. Congratulations Richard!

True to his own predictions this year, Richard Bookamer has reached the 1000th lifetime asteroid observed this month, just 7 years 10 months into his visual program. He joins the members published in MAP Alert #378, March 19, 2008, compiled by Gerard Faure. His complete report is listed below, too full of details to edit, so enjoy his success in his message below.

<Hello all,
I viewed my 1000th asteroid, 898 Hildegard, on the morning of May 2. It was very close to its predicted magnitude of 14.1 and I hope to view it a few more times during this opposition since it doesn't get bright very often.

I have sent this email from a new address, rbookamer@hotmail.com which I obtained to try to avoid problems in receiving mail at my other address. Please use this address in the future, although mail sent to the old address will still get through (with a few exceptions).
I have gotten a lot of fun, relaxation and satisfaction from observing
asteroids and comets, and hope to continue for many years to come. Here are a few statistics concerning my asteroid observation program as of May 2, 2008.
--Richard Bookamer
Total different asteroids viewed: 1000
Total observations (positions): 4123
Total numbered asteroids, 1 - 1000: 771
Total numbered asteroids, 1001 - 10000: 201
Total numbered asteroids, >10000: 16
Total unnumbered asteroids: 12
Total near-earth asteroids: 37 (including 20 PHAs)
Brightest asteroid: 4 Vesta mag. 5.8
Faintest asteroid: 2000 DP107 mag. 15.2
Smallest asteroid: 2001 EC16 ~150 m (H = 22.4)
Closest asteroid: 2007 TU24 0.0024 AU from Earth
Most distant asteroid: 134340 Pluto 31.24 AU from Earth
Most distant main belt asteroid: 334 Chicago 4.45 AU from Earth
Starting date: July 7, 2000
Elapsed time: 7 years, 10 months
Viewing locations:
Micco, Florida 27° 50.849' N. 80° 31.051' W. alt. 4m
Sebastian, Florida 27° 48.499’ N. 80° 28.141’ W. alt. 8m
Telescopes:
20 cm Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain, f/5 and f/10 equatorial mount
25 cm homemade Newtonian reflector, f/5.5 Dobsonian mount
41 cm Meade DS-16 Newtonian reflector, f/4.5 Dobsonian mount
<end report>

Gerard sends his remarks>
CONGRATULATIONS, RICHARD FOR YOUR 1000th ASTEROID !!!!
You are now a Member of The Millennium Club !!!
Your data also is interesting to read !>


Clear skies me allowed observe asteroid 259 Aletheia occult 10.9-mag. PPM 160597 (TYC 0318-01328-1) in Virgo Tuesday morning April 16. My location was predicted right on the center-line, but a path shift shortened the predicted time from around to 16 seconds, to the 5 seconds seen. This is my 4th successful asteroid occultation from my home, moving me to about 2 minutes and 35 seconds of lifetime asteroid shadow "watching". Yet another good reason to skip sleep
now and then.

In another minor news, I hope my lunar eclipse image done with my Polaroid SX 70 will make the grade with redefine magazine, and be published by them. I even sent an image of the camera attached to the telescope, just to prove it was true! The chances of them having anyone on the staff that might understand this image are much less then catching an asteroid shadow. Wonder if this might be
the first (and last)such image to be published. I have had this professional scanned should and readers want to see this for themselves, just request it please.

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map

*********************************************************

MAP Alert #280, April 9, 2008

More news from Gerard Faure, a little observing success,
and a little ALPO news highlight this spring MAP Alert.
Gerard Writes:
Hi to all,
The spring is not a famous season to observe during numerous nights and effectively the weather predictions are bad for the next ten days here. Fortunately, the most part of the night of April 04-05,2008 was starry and under the sky I saw again 10 asteroids !

On April 04,2008 I saw :
------------------------
1382 Gerti v14.8-14.8
1528 Conrada v14.8-14.9 B/0.2-B/0.1
840 Zenobia v15.0-15.1 F/0.5-F/0.6 Old MAP object
1855 Korolev v15.1-15.2 F/0.1-F/0.2
3861 Lorenz v15.2-15.4
3428 Roberts v15.3-15.3
3198 Wallonia
v15.5-15.4 F/0.9-F/0.8 Old MAP object + Mars-crosser
3446 Combes v15.6-15.6
8059 Deliyannis v15.6-15.8 0.0-F/0.2 Recent MAP object
37384 2001 WU1 v16.1 Mars-crosser

The original discrepancies of magnitude were confirmed for (840) Zenobia and (3198) Wallonia. It was not the case for (8059) Deliyannis which certainly is variable because it was 0.5 magnitude brighter for Roger and 0.2 magnitude fainter for myself.
Among many possibilities, I chosen (3446) Combes because I know this French Astronomer who is a specialist of asteroids and notably of NEA; In 1982, he made a book in French named "la Terre bombardée" which is updated in 2008
on his website :
http://astrosurf.com/macombes/
and precisely at :
http://astrosurf.com/macombes/La Terre Bombardee 2007.pdf
If you read French, we shall read many relations between old legends and earth craters or astronomical events in the past. It's a very interesting book !
You can see also many tables on the NEA in his website, updated
continuously in the part named "LA LISTE DES NEA CONNUS" at :
http://astrosurf.com/macombes/partie NEO.html
Thanks for the observing and reading suggestion on asteroids Gerard.
Clearing skies came thru last night for observing the moon near the Pleiades, hope a few readers got to see the treat as well. While I have seen this in times past, I took the time to use my camera to both image and video the pair as seen in my 20x 80mm binoculars. A lunar close up came out not too good, but the seeing was poor due to low sky position. The video contained no stars, but I really did not expect it. While results were just a test, the fun was 100% successful.

ALPO news for the minor planet section.
While my asteroid book project never made it to press, the ideas are still good and fresh. I plan to create a project for observers new to
asteroids/astronomy in general at the ALPO website. The project will be called "The Planets of Dawn". This is of course a project to observe Vesta and Ceres. I plan to take a little advise from my publisher and present (hopefully) a not too wide ranging program to place observers in the field to see or image these objects. It would be a shame if the ALPO did not have such a project ready for persons seeking this type of program. While this may be "pie in the sky" I would like to see science teachers approach local astronomy clubs to get their most interested students in the field. I plan to suggest observing in just binoculars, and leave telescopes to those who can show them the objects, with help of star charts our own "Dawn" website. It would
also be nice to do well enough to get a link on the real Dawn site as well. More pie in the sky, high hopes cost nothing these days. And of course sneak in as much teaching as I dare as well. Sound good? I can see this added on later by observing NEA's as well, way down the line.
As they say here in the USA "part of a complete breakfest", I hope the planets of Dawn can round out at least a few observers interest in
the Dawn probe results, not only in study online, but real time as well.
Comments are very welcome on this project.

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com
AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map
********************************************************

MAP Alert #379, April 1, 2008
Greetings MAP Observers!
Did the header show with this alert coming from my MSN account? I've tried to paste in the address to see if it works, would be nice!
(follow up, an error forced me to use the earthlink account :( )
News from Gerard Faure hightlights this April Fool's day MAP alert, with the header fool me again?

Gerard Writes>
Hello to all,
By chance, the night between Saturday and Sunday here was pure and starry, just before a new wave of rains !
I began this night by the vision of the very bright ISS following the
bright European ATV Jules Verne over the Vercors mountains at 19H30 UT before their disappearance in the shadow of Earth ! It was amazing to see the two objects only separated by some degrees in the Sky ! After, I began a long night of visual observations of asteroids ( 23 trails prepared for the night) which permitted the vision of 3 old MAP objects and 7 new objects (for me)
The lack of time or the lack of reference stars prevented the observations of the MAP asteroids 840, 1817, 3198, 8059, 49548, but I found a new MAP object and removed another old MAP asteroid.

Minor planets observed during the night of March 29-30 :
--------------------------------------------------------
2911 Miahelena v14.9 F/0.2
1379 Lomonosowa v14.9-15.0 F/0.0-F/0.2 old MAP object
1724 Vladimir v15.0-15.1 F/0.1-F/0.2
7267 1943 DF v15.1-15.2 F/0.3-F/0.4 new confirmed MAP object
1947 Iso-Heikillä v15.4
1479 Inkeri v15.5
2199 Klet v15.5-15.5 B/0.2-B/0.2
1794 Finsen v15.6
3401 Vanphilos v15.7? F/? Mars-crosser old MAP object
3017 Petrovic v15.8-15.8 F/0.6-F/0.6 NEW MAP OBJECT

With my new measures, the averaged difference of magnitude for 1379
Lomonosowa falls under the half-amplitude of magnitude estimated >0.26 mag.
This object then is removed from the active list of MAP objects.
I confirmed the new MAP object 7267 1943 DF seen with a discrepancy of magnitude at mid-March.

I found a new MAP object with a faintness of 0.6 magnitude :
3017 Petrovic
Have you observed it before ?
After the observations, I verified the difference of H magnitude for this
planet between the MPC and the IRAS data; It was for this case exactly equal to 0.6 magnitude !
3401 Vanphilos, moving between two observations, was seen but alas each time too close to a star. I had no possibility to measure its brightness. No new starry night predicted by the meteo for this week, but I hope to do again a night for the other missed objects, before the full Moon

Cheers
Gerard>

Another new MAP object seen by Gerard, 3017 Petrovic, excellent.
Observing here this weekend was cut by high winds and cold temps, far too poor for any telescope. But I did see the ISS/ATV-1 passages as did Gerard, a good -2.4 mag for the ISS.
This weekends clear skies held a little solar viewing of sorts, indoors. Many of you might have seen or own a Suncatcher that casts solar spectrums in your homes. Seen one you've seen them all, maybe not. I've added this to the MAP homepage at the link below, its shape
distorted by our ceiling light. Its about 5 feet long, can't help but think it a little wild. In fact I've added even more images from the catcher to my "collection" as this alert was composed.
http://home.earthlink.net/~lgasteroid/id17.html

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com
AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map


**********************************************************
MAP Alert #378, March 19, 2008
Greetings MAP Observers!
Messages from Gerard Faure and Richard Bookamer this "Vanguard 1 Day" (almost) MAP alert.
Gerard writes:
Again, I was busy for the end of this week ending this evening, but I
reached to observe a few during the local "best" night of this lunation, on the morning of Friday 14,2008.
Before the report of these last observations, I wish to thank you for your answers to your own actual total of observed asteroids but also for the various data on the type of absolute magnitudes used for the asteroids in the past.
For the actual total of different asteroids observed visually, the
following list will give the situation for each of the visual observers who
observed more than 1000 asteroids or nearly 1000 asteroids :

Johann Palisa < 1000 asteroids last observations in 1924
Ray Fabre < 1000 asteroids last observations in 1986
Richard Bookamer 986 asteroids (on March 03,2008)
Tom Laskowsky 1000 asteroids (and more ?)
Lawrence Garrett 1233 asteroids (on February 29,2008)
Paul Comba 1288 asteroids last visual observations in 1996
Frederick Pilcher 1816 asteroids last visual observations in 2003
Andrew Salthouse 1875 asteroids (on March 12,2008)
Gerard Faure 2040 asteroids (on March 14,2008)
Ben Hudgens 2233 asteroids (on March 08,2008)
Roger Harvey 4653 asteroids (on March 11,2008
Many years were necessary to reach these amazing results for each observer, but nevertheless, we shall never observe more than a few percents of the asteroids of the Solar System...
The MPC reached the 400000 asteroid orbits in February 2008, but the vast majority of asteroids are too fainter for visual observations.
It will be more interesting for us ;-) to remember the total of asteroids
visually observable.
In 2003, I made some statistics on the total of asteroids by maximum visual magnitude for the 73000 first numbered asteroids up to 2050, thank's to the files of the brightest visual magnitudes from Brian Warner :
Total up to
mag 14.9 : 2861
mag 15.9 : 9395
mag 16.9 : 20352
All the asteroids included in these totals will be not easily seen, because many of them rarely reach their maximum magnitude, but it will be at least partially compensated by the NEA or some bright asteroids with a number > 73000.
About 10000 asteroids reach v15.9 and about 3000 v14.9; You may calculate your own percentage of observed asteroids.

Thank you Frederick and Lawrence for your remarks and data on the absolute magnitudes of asteroids !
The history of the Absolute magnitudes seems to be the following :
Before 1970, the terms "M" or "Mo" were used to represent the absolute magnitudes of the minor planets, but perhaps in "v" at first, than as a photographic absolute magnitude after ?
In 1970, the IAU adopted the B band of the UBV system for the official
magnitude, with the letter "g" for the absolute magnitude, up to 1977 in the Russian EMP.
After, the formula "g = B(1.0)" represented the absolute magnitude, yet in the B band, up to the EMP 1987, but "B(1.0)" was more used than "g".

In 1988, the EMP used for the first time "H" for the absolute magnitude in the V Band. "H" is used today.

Lastly, I finally reached to observe some hours before the full moon.
Here, after many starry nights in the first part of February, we only had starry skies during the parts of two nights during the actual lunation. I used the second night to observe 5 asteroids.

From 00H UT to 03H50 UT, on March 14, and despite some sparse clouds, I saw

:
2606 Odessa v14.2-14.5 F/0.5-F/0.8 Old MAP object
1365 Henyey v14.5-14.3 F/0.5-F/0.3 " " "
7267 1943 DF v14.6-14.5 F/0.4-F/0.3 New MAP object and Mars-crosser
11398 1998 YP11 v14.8 Amor 2
7663 1994 RX1 v15.8-15.8 F/0.7-F/0.7 Old MAP object
Averaged incertainty ~ +/-0.1 mag

(2606) Odessa is known to be highly variable (0.80 mag). It was clearly
more fainter during my second observation and fainter than 1365 which was fainter than 2606 during my first observation of it during the night. I think that 2606 went to its minima and 1365 for its unknown maxima of light, between the first and the second observations.
The MAP averaged difference of 2606 is 0.6 mag fainter for 0.4 mag of
half-amplitude of light
(1365) Henyey already was observed during four oppositions, but only by two observers. Its averaged difference of magnitude is F/0.4
Please, it will be VERY INTERESTING to obtain new measures by at least one of you during the next month to permit the publication of the results BY THREE OBSERVERS in a next article on the MPB, of course with the names of the observers ! Its official V magnitude will be about V14.5 during the next lunation. Thank you !
(7267) 1943 DF seems to be fainter than predicted; Have you observed it or do you observe it during the next lunation ?
(7663)1994 RX1 was visible during my night, but not (3083) OAFA predicted at mag V16.0; 1994 RX1, already observed by the MAP in 2001 apparently was observed in the past, before the MAP, because a fainter V magnitude was predicted by Frederick for 2008; With these old observations and knowledge of the fainter magnitudes, it would be possible to obtain at least three observed oppositions with the 2001 and 2008 observations. Please Frederick, do you send to me your old data ?
I think that certainly it will be possible to extend the MAP data :
1) by searching the "good" measures among the measures of lightcurves made out of the MAP for the objects treated by the MAP
2) by doing some searches in the visual observations preceding the MAP
3) by comparing the USNO and GSC magnitudes in the areas where many rejected GSC measures of the MAP have been made; If there are similar USNO and GSC magnitudes in these areas, the measures should be usuable in the MAP calculations of the averaged differences of asteroid magnitudes. Is there a volunteer to do these analyses notably during the covered nights?

Lastly, I saw the perfect lightcurves by Frederick in the new MPB 2008-2 !
Congratulations for these works !
On the MPML List, I congratulated The latest iteration of the Asteroid Lightcurve Data base (LCDB) by Warner, Harris, and Pravec at :
http://www.minorplanetobserver.com/astlc/LightcurveParameters.htm
It is a big compiling of data !
You can see in this LCDB the inclusion of our last MPB article of 2007 as reference and the report of the H magnitude estimates of the MAP for most of the 13 asteroids treated by the MAP in the MPB !
Our work is then included in the official data on asteroids !!! A GREAT NEW !

Good luck for your own observations but also for some MAP observations
during the next lunation !! ;-)
Best wishes <end report Gerard>
Gerard follows with yet another message with his IRAS comments, yet to be read
completely

Thank you Prof. Pilcher for your visual observation comments to round out
our list, and we will welcome Richard Bookamer 1000th asteroid soon!!
Another note of thanks for the Kuiper-Gehrels comments here
"As I recall both Gerard Peter Kuiper and Tom Gehrels worked at Yerkes Observatory, associated with University of Chicago, in the 1950's. Later both moved to Tucson where Kuiper founded the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona."

Richard Bookamer reports>
Hi Lawrence,
Glad to hear that you are staying with the MAP. I know that it is a lot of work for you, and if there is any way I can help to ease the load, I'm willing to try. (Thanks for the kind words) I also know how discouraging an observation program can be at times. It
falls upon us amateurs, who usually must earn our living elsewhere, to fight bad weather, light pollution, moonlight (and in Florida at least, mosquitoes!!!) in the hope of adding another rock to our collections, or another drop to the ocean of knowledge. At least I don't usually have to deal with very cold weather or travel long distances in order to observe.And I hope those Vermont skies clear up soon!
Here is my recent observation of a MAP object, along with two NEOs. All are type GMv since I'm not up to speed on AMv yet but I'm working on it. As of Mar. 15 I have seen a total of 989 different asteroids and I'm looking forward to reaching 1000 in May, or possibly April.
2606 Odessa Mar. 9.08959 v14.4 F/0.7 MAP object
1685 Toro Jan. 26.00973 v13.6 F/0.0 NEO
4450 Pan Feb. 10.34868 v13.1 F/0.1 PHA
--Richard Bookamer---end report

Not to waste a night this week, I took time on "Vanguard 1 Day", March 17, to try to spot this with my 12.5" telescope. The bright moonlight left only 11th magnitude stars visible in my target field, so I packed up for another darker night. FYI, this is an estimated Mv 13.5 object, and being on St.Patricks day is an easy day to remember to try again. What a good object for faint asteroid observers.

Not to forget this new MAP object of Gerards!
7267 1943 DF v14.6-14.5 F/0.4-F/0.3 New MAP object and Mars-crosser call for observations .

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map

**********************************************************

MAP Alert #377, March 14, 2008

Greetings MAP Observers!
A short Roger Harvey report with this Fridays MAP Alert.

March 13: 7663 1994RX1 F/0.8 @ 15.8 4:25UT to 5:25UT verifying Pilcher's data.
13166 1995 WU1 3 obs F/0.6 @ 16.0 3:48UT to 5:14UT
49548 1999CP83 3 obs F/0.3 @ 15.8 4:13UT to 5:30UT

Roger Harvey report success in confirming Prof. Pilcher data with 7663 1994RX1, very good both Roger and Prof. Pilcher! Gerard Faure noted the very large Minor planet Bulletin with a huge amount of lightcurves, including two reports from Prof.Pilcher. This is quite an issue for sure. Brian Warner is as always quite active.
I have attached an image of a 1952 EMP from Russia with the names
Kuiper-Gehrels on the cover, I thinks its Kupier. Would he have been working with Tom Gehrels in 1952, or at the same place, of is this another astronomer? Any guesses? Wikipedia does not seem to say so.

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com
When they give you lemons, toss them right back :-)

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map


**********************************************************
MAP Alert #376, March 11, 2008

Greetings MAP Observers!

Brief reports from Gerard Faure and Roger Harvey highlight this March MAP alert.

This report from Roger comes from a Gerard message, perhaps my usual copy is lost in space.

At 11:21 10/03/2008 -0400, you wrote:

Hi Gerard, Last night was clear with the air moving smoothly
yielding good images of Saturn at full aperture (I usually stop down my scope for planetary/moon work). March 10 Deliyannis 8059 3 obs @ 15.3 B/0.5 (a NEW MAP OBJECT)


Wow, a brighter then predicted object for a Change. While its due to brighten only 0.2 mv, every little bit helps.
Roger speaks of a few other objects not seen, such as 2008 EZ7, and 7663 1994 RX1.
He did observe 2008 EZ8, another small close approach object.
Gerard speaks of his reaching his 2038th asteroid visually, and requests life totals from our readers. I used to keep this up in a file, but this has lapsed on my part, so please CC me as well for postings at our webpages. My creeping up totals have reached 1233 with 153591 2001 SN263 in February 29.
Gerard has also updated my on a question of his observing charts for magnitudes at his telescope. These were maps from Sky and telescope from 1984, I have used these as well. These were used in conjunction with Atlas Stellarum selected areas.

Gerard requests the following:
<The first asteroid discovered photographically was (323) Brucia in 1891 The photoelectric measures were made and used in the seventies, but when the EMP began to use B absolute magnitudes ?
What it used before ?
What was the type of magnitude in the "Tables of Minor Planets 1973" from
Frederick Pilcher and Jean Meeus ?>
I have the EMP volumes that will cover some of this data for Gerard, and have the book by Charles Kowal should this also be of use. I'll get the info toGerard soon. Readers can of course answer as well.
Anything left out? Despite falling down in the dark last week (no biggie)I spotted the Comet Holmes/California Nebula conjunction. What a low contrast pair, quite the change from Holmes world class showing. Still I am VERY glad to have taken the time to see Holmes in its current state of background glow faintness.
Clear Skies

Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com
When they give you lemons, toss them right back :-)

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map

MAP Alerts 2008

*****************************************************************************


MAP Alert #375, March 4, 2008
Greetings MAP Observers:
A brief message to let members know to submit observations
as usual, and that I am signed on for 2008 as MAP coordinator.
I had a long drawn out message to describe coming out of "retirement" after just a few days, but will not go on too long.
My plans to hope to find another observer to take over these alerts who could do more observing then myself at this time may have sounded good, but really are flawed.

I just do not think another observer will come to the ALPO and stay on for years to do this type of work. Most likely those who could are already are up to their eyeballs in their own work and taking on a second project is very remote. There may not be a "best time" to retire from this program, perhaps near its closing, or alerts no longer needed. Retirement will come some day, but under which terms are unknown.

My main troubles are the cloud lock here all the time, something I need to forget about. Its been a very bad winter, with no real observing outside of a couple of things here and there. Despite my complaints, an observer in my local club took out his telescope for the first time in almost 2 years
for the recent lunar eclipse. I have it made compared to others who have to travel. But magnitude estimates may have to end, and you will see other observations of this and that. Right now, I hope to spot some of the USA 193 Debris.

Also, my book project book project was not successful. I do know the wolf needs to eat too, but all they leave you is the bones. Rather then become defeated by this, I wish to work on a new project to help new observers who visit the ALPO site. Perhaps much of the basic items for this project can be used.
I have seen your long message Gerard, please let me review it.
Please hold the welcome back messages, I think only my temper left :-)

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com
AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map
**********************************************

LEAP YEAR 2008 MAP Alert #374, February 29, 2008

Greetings MAP Observers:
Reports from Roger Harvey and Gerard Faure highlight this special MAP alert for leap year day 2008

Roger Reports
Feb. 28: 4790 Petrpravec 3:46 – 5:00UT 3 OBS F/0.9 @ 16.0Mv (faint or what)
2002 TD66 0:26 – 0:40UT 6 OBS F/0.6 @ 15.8

Gerard updates us:
Hi Roger and Lawrence,

Very good news, Roger, with the measures on (4790) Petrpravec which already was measured (F/0.8) in 2000 by Robert Koff and 2002 (F/1.0) by myself. Your measures permit to have three observed oppositions with nearly the same results !

It was also the case for (5231)Verne after my recent observations on this object in February 09.
I prepared 4790 for the last lunation but it was frequently far from reference stars. I shall try this object during this actual lunation

Good end of week
Gerard

With these reports complete, I wish to announce my retirement from the MAP program and the ALPO. Future posting of magnitude errors should post directly to this list until the new director of this list is in place. 2008 marks 20 years of my public posting in asteroids that have included this project, my newsletter "the near-Earth Asteroids Bulletin" and my "Asteroids Online" with America Online. In all I have posted over 450 messages/alerts and have received more then 1000 messages from observers, first by S.A.S.E's to today's e-mail messages.

While It is impossible to thank the readers enough, I wish to extend special thanks to Prof. Pilcher, Brian Warner, Andrew Salthouse, Ben Hudgens, Roger Harvey, and Gerard Faure.
Perhaps my longest is with Dr. Richard Binzel, who's advise really set up the MAP alert project,thanks
Dr. Binzel. It is surly time to hand the MAP program over to a more modern observer on his way up in astronomy rather then at my retirement stage. A CCD observer with an observatory who could direct and observe like I never can would be great for the program. And while I will step down as director I hope to remain on the mailing list, and if these impossible Vermont skies will even let me, report observations as well.

Since it is far too hard to say goodbye, let's not!
Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com
AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map

**************************************************************
MAP Alert #373, February 13, 2008

Greetings MAP Observers!
Quite a report from Gererd Faure is all I can say for this edition of the MAP Alerts!

I hope readers can keep in mind how many people would wish to do this a life's project, not just a few nights at the scope! Reaching so faint, magnitude errors and even an occultation event! For Gerard these are for sure the "good old days"!

I noticed his mention of "Selected area SA 51" below, might this be from the Hans Vehrenberg's Selected area atlas Gerard? We will pass this reply along in the next alert. I could not check this as mine is long stored away. For those who have never used the Hans Vehrenberg's selected area atlas, in
conjuction with the Atlas Stellarum, it was quite a feat to succeed.
If you wish to wonder what it was like, get out your pepper shaker and place a patten on a white sheet of paper. Use a 5x glass to observe one of the small patterns of "stars", and then imagine in blown up to fill a 8x11 sheet of paper in the selected area atlas. I always had to use at least 160x in my 12.5" telescope to really see these fields. Or perhaps Gerard has yet a better trick! I will let his message speak for itself, perhaps a few astronomy clubs might get a hold of this and make it a club project to "someday" complete.

Make sure to note his new MAP objects.


<Gerard
Lastly, a good period of starry nights on the Alpes mountains came from the last Friday up certainly to the last of this week !
I am very busy for this actual week by my work of accountant, but during the last week-end, I lived two amazing nights !
When I saw many very faint stars between the stars of the known constellations at the beginning of the nights, I thought that this was the sign of a future perfect night !
The two nights of Friday 08 and Saturday 09 were very starry, without wind, humidity, pollution, turbulence, moon, haze and clouds !

I searched the faintest stars at the naked eye in the Ursa Minor
constellation and despite the proximity of the halo from Grenoble, I reached to see the stars SAO 8221 (V+6.68) and SAO 8227 (V+7.38) located at the East of Beta UMi, high in the sky ! I also tried to explore the photometrical chart of the Selected area SA 51 centred on SAO 79445, near Castor, with my C8 and the eyepiece Plossl 8mm. The stars of mag V16.0, V16.5 and V16.9 were indirectly visible, respectively sometimes, fugitive and fleeting but sure ! The results also were amazing for the asteroids; I watched 17 asteroids and
among them 16 were fainter than v 15.2 ! 10 of them are MAP objects ! I chosed the faintest objects, to permit the coverage of the remaining bright objects by other Observers under less good skies.

Night of February 08-09,2008 :
------------------------------
750 Oskar v14.5
2080 Jihlava v15.3-15.3
5231 Verne v15.3-15.3 F/0.7-F/0.7 Old MAP object
2052 Tamriko v15.3-15.4 F/0.1-F/0.2
3675 Kemstach v15.4 Cybele
3247 Di Martino v15.5-15.5 F/0.2-F/0.2
5331 Erimomisaki v15.6-15.6
5650 Mochihito-o v15.8-15.8 F/0.2-F/0.2 MAP object 2007
2612 Kathryn v15.9-15.8 F/0.8-F/0.7 Old MAP object
170891 2004 TY16 v15.9 to 16.1 F/0.4 to F/0.6 Amor 2, new MAP Object
3288 Seleucus v16.2-16.2 F/0.5-F/0/.5 Amor 2, highly known variable

Night of February 09-10,2008 :
------------------------------
2670 Chuvashia v15.5-15.6 F/0.7-F/0.8 Old MAP object
6972 Helvetius v15.8-15.9 F/0.9-F/1.0 MAP object 2008
1300 Marcelle v15.8-15.8 F/0.7-F/0.7 Old MAP object
9219 1995 WO8 v15.9-15.9 F/0.3-F/0.3 Old MAP object
170891 2004 TY16 v15.9-15.9 F/0.4-F/0.4 Amor 2, MAP Object 2008
9117 Aude v16.0-16.0 F/1.0-F/1.0 Old MAP object
5671 Chanal v16.3-16.3 F/0.2-F/0.2 Old MAP object

All the new measures confirmed the measures of the previous observations of the MAP objects, excepted for (5650) Mochihito-o (lower difference of magnitude) may be variable and (5671) Chanal for which the 4 observed oppositons give an averaged difference of F/0.01 mag. This object then is removed of the MAP list.

Otherwise, the NEA (170891) 2004 TY16 is a NEW MAP Object for which my two sets of measures always give a fainter magnitude. A search in the MPC data shows that before the definitive number, the H magnitude of 2004 TY16 moved
from 16.8, to 16.9 and lastly 17.0; May be, the H mag is yet fainter ? During my asteroid quests, I observed the nearby stars GJ 273 ( alias "Luyten star ) at 12.4 LY near (3288) and GI 176 at 30.73 LY near (5331) Lastly, on the evening of February 05, I observed a positive occultation of a star of mag V11.06 during 20.7 seconds by (409) Aspasia of mag V10.8
Another observer took the same occultation by video some 10 km north to my position and observed an occultation of 21 seconds. After, I looked at the asteroid leaving the star.

Good week !
Gerard>
Clear Skies

Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map

************************************************************************

MAP Alert #372, February 9, 2008

Greetings MAP Observers:

Two more for the collection writes Roger Harvey on his latest observations for the MAP program. You have not missed an alert, the last was a typo of mine, and will be corrected to alert #371 at the website. So many alerts, so few clear skies :-(

Feb. 7: 6972 Helvetius 5:40 UTto 6:32 UT F/0.8 @15.8Mv
9671 Hemera 5:17 UT to 6:10 UT F/0.5F @15.8Mv
Thanks Roger as always.

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com

AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map

*******************************************

MAP Alert #371, February 4, 2008
Greetings MAP Observers:
A review of recent successful observations this current dark of the moon highlight this February MAP alert.

Mail of January 29 from Richie Bookamer

Greetings,
I am pleased to report having recently observed four near-Earth asteroids. For each one, I list the name or designation, date of observation (UT), observed mag. (GMv except for 2007 TU24 which is TMv based on Tycho 2), predicted mag. (MPC), number of positions recorded, and length of observing period.

(3200) Phaethon 2007 Dec. 9.38125 14.0 13.9 18 34 mins.
2005 WJ56 2008 Jan. 8.99376 11.5 11.5 8 48 minutes
2007 TU24 2008 Jan. 29.00903 10.74 12.0 5 12 minutes
2007 TU24 2008 Jan. 30.10209 10.76 11.0 3 10 minutes
2001 SN263 2008 Jan. 29.04391 13.5 13.8 3 41 minutes
2007 TU24 appeared to fade by at least 0.5 magnitude in less than 10 minutes on Jan. 29 (UT) but the fainter estimates were of type GMv and I thought that they were too unreliable to list in detail.

Good luck to all in their observations,
Richie Bookamer> End report

Wow, quite the NEO report to say the least. A near perfect score for the month, missing perhaps only 1685 Toro. Have not seen any light curve for 2007 TU24 yet. But it was smaller
and elongated from the radar observations, so a large fading is quite possible and with no doubt real. I missed this object visually with yet another case of "global hazing". My new term for recent "missing" NEO's for January, this beingthe second.

Andrew Salthouse requested "call for observations on Feb. 1
Asteroids #1890 and 1929 were rather close together for the last few days. Although 1929 is predicted to be about 0.1 mag brighter than 1890 on most of the recent dates, I found it always to be fainter. Also, I recently observed 1805 on two nights and found it to be at least 1/4 mag brighter than predicted.
Finally, I observed 2007 TU24 twice on the night of Jan 30-31 and again twice on the night of Jan 31-Feb 1. It seemed a bit dimmer than predicted
End report>

Gerard Faure follow up to this message on Feb. 2
May be the next night will be clear here, and I hope to observe asteroids during the entire night, despite a predicted cold temperature. I already prepared charts for about 20 asteroids, but I shall try to observe 1805 Dirikis during this night.
I shall update soon a list of MAP Objects at opposition in 2008, list made by Bernard Guillaud-Saumur in September 2007
In this list, there are five old MAP objects which are or will be soon bright and for which it would be interesting to do again new measures during their present opposition :
N°/Name/Provisional MAP Difference/Number of observed oppositions/predicted
V opp.2008/Opposition date/Predicted MPC V magnitude :
840 Zenobia F/0.4 ? M1 20080228 14.1
1365 Henyey F/0.4 ? M3 20080307 14.0
1379 Lomonosowa F/0.4 ? M1 20080214 14.1
2606 Odessa F/0.5 ? M1 20080303 13.6
3401 Vanphilos B/0.3 ? M3 20080218 14.2 MARS-CROSSER

Good week-end !
Best wishes
Gerard> End report
Gerard Follows with February 3 report
Hi to all,

I observed during the last night, but with less success than predicted, because I had the sky entirely covered during 5 hours :-( Low clouds came just after the beginning of my observations and left the sky five hours later, at 00H UT... but the sky was not very pure after, with a loss of about one magnitude. The positive effect was a night more *hot* : -5°C and not the predicted -10°C :-)

I used the covered hours to update partially the MAP Database. I shall finish an update at the end of February or March 2008 The weather is not very good since two months. It's difficult to have an entire night without clouds...
Since the beginning of the year, I observed asteroids two times :

Evening of January 26,2008
--------------------------
4512 Sinuhe v14.8
153591 2001 SN263 v13.9 Amor 2

Night of February 2-3, 2008
---------------------------
4450 Pan v14.2-14.3 B/0.2-B/0.1 Apollo 1 seems variable
- 2007 TU24 v14.4 F/0.3 +/-0.2 Apollo 2
1805 Dirikis v14.8-14.8 F/0.1-F/0.1
3924 Birch v15.2
765 Mattiaca v15.3
4497 Taguchi v15.3-15.3 F/1.0-F/1.0 +/-0.1 Old MAP Object
1006 Lagrangea v15.6

2007 TU24 : I observed this object at the end of the night "for the fun" as wrote Raoul Behrend :-) and of course my eyes were tired, but this NEA seemed fainter than predicted and even fainter than 4450 Pan.

On January 12,2008 the MPEC 2008-A05 indicated a H = 20.1 for 2007 TU24 On February 01,2008, the MPEC 2008-B67 gave H = 20.6May be this object is variable - I don't see data on the web up to now -but may be also it is yet fainter than predicted in the last MPC data...

On the MPML list, Ron Baalke wrote :
"Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have obtained the first images of asteroid 2007 TU24 using high-resolution radar data. The data indicate the asteroid is somewhat asymmetrical in shape, with a diameter roughly 250 meters (800 feet) in size.." As 2007 TU24 is asymmetrical in shape, then it is variable.

1805 Dirikis : It is a few fainter than predicted, but after the
observations, I saw that a lightcurve exists with 0.55 mag of amplitude. The half-amplitude is more important than the discrepancy of 0.1-0.2 magnitude observed by Andrew and me.

4497 Taguchi : I observed again Taguchi observed in 1999 by Frederick, Andrew, Roger and myself. The 2008 observations confirm the great difference of magnitude for this object. It would be interesting to observe it again. Its known amplitude of light is small : 0.15 magnitude

Lastly but more personal, after the observation of 765 Mattiaca, my list of unseen asteroids among the 1000 first numbered is reduced to 9 objects :
587, 730, 750, 827, 835, 836, 878, 887 and 935
I shall certainly observe 750 Oskar in February or March 2008, and may be some others during the next years, but 878 Mildred (max V 16.5 in December 2014 and V16.3 in 2021) and 887 Alinda (max V16.6 in May 2009 and V15.0 in 2024 at -20°) will be in the list for a long time...
I shall try to observe 887 Alinda with a bigger telescope in 2009...
Good week !
Gerard> end report

Good follow up posting Gerard on 2007 TU24, and your observations as well.

Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com
AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map

***********************************************

MAP Alert #370, January 15, 2008

Greetings MAP Observers:
Using my Earthlink.net account, I hope to solve the missing header problems and MAP Alert #370, January 15, 2008 is visible in your e-mail box.

A brief alert with news from Roger Harvey with a growing moon to leave little time to confirm his observations.
January 14: 5713 1982 FF3 5:28UT “ 6:21UT 3 obs @ 15.6 (F/0.5).
Near its "brighest" now, this object is due to fade in the coming days. While this may come from earthlink account, please remember to use my
lsgasteroid@msn.com address for messages, thanks.


Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com
AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map
****************************************************
MAP Alert #369, January 3, 2008
Greetings MAP Observers:
Roger Harvey starts the new year right with the following observation:
January 1 6:02 – 7:10 UT 5650 Mochihito-o F/0.5 @ 15.5
While quite faint for most visual observers, this object is at it maximum the next week or so
and then grows even fainter. Call for observations before the next moon.
Prof. Frederick Pilcher has sent me his Farorable elongation text for 2008, to be placed
at the website this weekend. If anyone needs this sooner, please e-mail me for the January
data.
Did the header show in this format? I still need to resolve this problem, perhaps sending this from my
earthlink account will correct this trouble. I might re-send this message again as a test this weekend.
Lastly, anyone notice the three bright NEA's visible this month on spaceweather.com?
A rare chance to see this many so bright objects in just one month, weather pending.
Send you sightings magnitude errors or not!
Gerard Faure sends word of his many images taken on his vacation, but on two computers
I see only a red X for the images at his website. Anyone have this trouble? I saw only a single cat image, and should forward my own cat images to Gerard as well sometime. Perhaps you can see them @ http://album.club-internet.fr/gpmfaure
Clear Skies
Lawrence Garrett
ALPO Minor Planet Section Coordinator
lsgasteroid@msn.com
AUDE WebPages
Gerard Faure (8297 gerardfaure)
http://www.astrosurf.com/map