Faulkes Telescope Observations

Follow-up of archive image asteroids

Asteroid 23593 images obtained using the Faulkes Telescope North at Haleakala, operated by Las Cumbres Observatory. Click on image to enlarge.

My main project was to search through archive images of the Subaru telescope looking for and identifying asteroids. I found quite a large number of them both already known but mostly unknown asteroids. Two of the known asteroids were asteroid 23593 and asteroid 71250. Once I had completed my project and recorded all the necessary data I decided to try and follow up two of the asteroids I observed in an image from the Subaru telescope taken on 31/12/2005, almost ten years ago. The two asteroids I selected were (23593) and (71250). By using the Faulkes telescope to try and observe and asteroid I had identified from an image taken ten years earlier would help improve the accuracy of the asteroid's orbit substantially. I used the Minor Planet Centre's ephemeris service to pinpoint where each asteroid would be on the date that I had booked the Faulkes telescope for so I would be able to correctly position the telescope in order to see each asteroid. The pictures below were taken with the Faulkes telescope and show the asteroid 23593 in its state at 11/08/2015 ten years after I identified it in the Subaru telescope's image archive.

Thanks are due to the Las Cumbres Observatory and Faulkes Telescope Project for giving us time to use their telescopes which allowed these observations to be made.

-Liam.

2015 August 11th

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More astronomical projects with the Faulkes Telescopes

Last Revised: 2015 September 3rd