Archives for Сентябрь 2011

September, 7-8 – discovery of a short-period comet P/2011 R3 (NOVICHONOK-GERKE) by observer Vladimir Gerke and measurer Artom Novichonok( TAU Station, Ka- Dar Observatory). The present discovery is confirmed by MPC circular – MPEC 2011 R34.

TAU Station is located in the North Caucasus, not far from Nizhny Arkhyz, next to Special Astrophysical Observatory RAS. This is the first remote station of a private Ka- Dar Observatory (Moscow suburbs).

The station was opened last year, but had some problems with equipment. The staff was trying to make it function and they finally succeeded: several weeks later, they made a discovery!

At first, the comet was called after measurer, but then, considering all the clarifying information, the comet acquired its official name – P/2011 R3 (NOVICHONOK-GERKE).

Vladimir Gerke is a staff observer of the TAU Station and his colleague Artom Novichonok – an expert in comets’ study (You can see his prognostic lightcurves of Comet Elenin on our site).

The deepest congratulation to Ka-Dar Observatory and Artom from all CoLiTec (CLT) team on this wonderful discovery! We hope it to be just a beginning!

MPC monthly circular MPC 75799 – 76268. Observation results of observatories using CoLiTec software (August 14, 2011 – September 12, 2011):

Discovery of 59 asteroids, that makes 537 asteroids’ discoveries and two comet discoveries with CoLiTec software application.

Since the Comet Elenin has been discovered, its popularity kept growing. This comet happened to be the first discovery made by a Russian astronomer for the last 20 years on the territory of CIS (http://neoastrasoft.com/news/news1/?lang=ru)!

The Comet Elenin was even identified with apocalyptic mythological wandering Solar System planet Nibiru (http://ria.ru/science/20110507/371945235.html); western media suggested it to be a brown dwarf. Such unprofessional statements were very annoying for the discoverer Leonid Elenin, who had to discuss it at his blog (http://spaceobs.org/ru), dedicating a special section (http://spaceobs.org/ru/asteroids-comets/faq/) to the origins of  Comet Elenin С/2010 Х1 (Elenin).

But scientific interest to this discovery didn’t yield to this sensational media- nonsense. The comet fast became the most observed in history of optical CCD-observations. It was expected to be visible to the naked eye, after perihelion passage (October 2011) and maximum approach to the Earth (http://spaceobs.org/ru/2011/05/02/comet-elenin-may-be-brighter-than-expected/).

The comet was observed by STEREO (http://neoastrasoft.com/news/news24/?lang=ru#more-2696) observatories; submillimetric telescope JCMT (http://spaceobs.org/ru/2011/08/10/comet-elenina-increasing-interest-in-the-scientific-community/); additional observation from other spacecrafts were considered. All these observations permitted us to observe fascinating interaction between the comet and coronal Sun mass ejection (http://spaceobs.org/ru/2011/08/24/interaction-between-comet-elenin-and-coronal-mass-ejection-from-the-sun/). Unfortunately now, one day before the comet’s perihelion passage (http://spaceobs.org/ru/2011/09/06/countdown-to-perihelion/), we could state that the Comet Elenin С/2010 Х1 (Elenin) didn’t survive the ejection and now is under disintegration (http://spaceobs.org/ru/2011/09/03/comet-elenin-the-final-prospect/). So, the first visit of this celestial object in Solar System’s interior happened to be the last one.

The projects updating:
1. Frames’ addition now is possible without external star catalogue.
2. Algorithm modification of threshold’s calculation for preliminary signals’ detection that now permits to detect fade signals around Milky Way.
3. Modificated algorithm for inner catalog of fixed objects’ formation permits now to reduce 4-times formation period.
4. Improvement of interframe processing’s algorithms for discovered objects’ speed range expansion. It permits to discover objects with speed of apparent movement that is up to 10’’/min (with a small quantity of false discoveries) on the 2’’/pixel frames with 20-30 minutes between frames periodicity.
5. The present software now is able to work with star catalogue Tycho-2 that permits to identify wide FOV (more 5 degrees wide).
Read more »

During sky survey in the night of 27 August 28 (UTC) ISON-NM observer Leonid Elenin with help of CoLiTec program has discovered a near Earth object received a provisional designation 2011 QY37. You could see electronic circular of MPC dedicated to this event. This is first NEO discovered with help of our program and the second NEO discovered by ISON-NM observatory.