07/02/06

Minor planets discovered independently by Francisquito Observatory

(listed in order of latest discovery)

2004PX42 

Discovery Circumstances:

Main Belt asteroid discovered by Francisquito Observatory on 2004.08.11, in second-night images taken to confirm previous Francisquito main belt discovery 2004PC27.  Brightness measured at magnitude 20.1 at time of discovery, with a sky motion of 0.30arc-sec/min.  Absolute magnitude: 17.2.  Distance: 1.158AU.  Confirmation observations made on 2004.08.12, provisional designation issued by MPC on same date.  Also observed by MIT-LINEAR (Socorro, NM) on 2004.08.11.  Later linked with single-night observations by Kitt Peak (Arizona) on 2002.02.06, LPL-Spacewatch (Arizona) on 2002.02.09, LINEAR on 2002.02.11, and Kitt Peak-Spacewatch on 2000.08.01; a previous designation of 2002CK262 had been used for one or more of the single-night observations in 2002.

Above: Discovery image of Minor Planet 2004PX42 taken by Francisquito Observatory on 2004.08.11 at 09:25:09 UTC;  20.5 minutes total exposure time.  Celestial coordinates: RA 00h 41m 57.35s; DEC +06deg 29m 49.8s.  Discovery location of 2004PX42 marked with red cross-hairs; yellow box marks location of previous Francisquito discovery 2004PC27.  Below:  Diagram showing location of 2004PX42 with respect to Sun, inner planets and Jupiter on date of discovery.

Current and Upcoming Oppositions:

Reaches first opposition as designated minor planet on 2004.10.01, expected brightness: mag. 18.8.  Next three oppositions: 2006.02.28/mag.21.0/+06degDEC; 2007.05.26/mag.20.7/-21degDEC; 2008.12.01/mag.19.3/+22degDEC.

Observations:

All 2004PX42 observations by Francisquito are listed here.

2004PC27

Discovery Circumstances:

Main Belt asteroid discovered by Francisquito Observatory on 2004.08.10 after re-processing images used for follow-up astrometric observations of (then) newly-discovered Near Earth Asteroid 2004PM2 (Francisquito also assisted in the 2004PM2 discovery).  Brightness measured at magnitude 19.6 at time of discovery, with a sky motion of 0.27arc-sec/min.  Absolute magnitude: 16.7.  Distance: 1.153AU.  Confirmation observations made on 2004.08.11, provisional designation issued by MPC on same date.  Also observed by MIT-LINEAR (Socorro, NM) on 2004.08.11 and linked with single-night (un-designated) observations by Lowell Observatory/LONEOS (Flagstaff, AZ) on 2004.08.08 and LINEAR on 2004.07.15.  Later linked with single-night (un-designated) observations made by Kitt Peak/Spacewatch (Arizona) on 2003.03.24 and Mt. Palomar/NEAT (California) on 2003.03.30.

Above: Discovery image of Minor Planet 2004PC27 taken by Francisquito Observatory on 2004.08.10 at 09:42:41 UTC;  10.5 minutes total exposure time.  Celestial coordinates: RA 00h 42m 30.48s; DEC +06deg 31m 43.3s. Discovery location of 2004PC27 is marked with red cross-hairs; yellow box marks location of Near Earth Asteroid 2004PM2.  An animated series of the full set of discovery images can be found at this link.  Dial-up Internet users should be aware that this animation is about 425KB in size, so please be patient as it downloads.  Below:  Diagram showing location of 2004PC27 with respect to Sun, inner planets and Jupiter on date of discovery.

Current and Upcoming Oppositions:

Reaches first opposition as designated minor planet on 2004.09.27, expected brightness: mag. 18.3.  Next three oppositions: 2006.01.27/mag.20.1/+21degDEC; 2007.05.23/mag.18.7/-30degDEC; 2008.12.09/mag.19.8/+31degDEC.

Observations:

All 2004PC27 observations made by Francisquito are listed here.