BAA 2019-2020 Low Phase Angle Photometry Project (ARPS)
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The 2019-2020 observing
season is now well underway and as part of the Asteroids and
Remote Planets activities, I am announcing some observing
targets.
In the summer, I selected the
most worthwhile asteroids as part of our Low Phase Angle Photometry
project. The list below summarises our 2019 targets. A
further 6 or more will be tackled during the first half of
2020 and I shall announce those in a few week's time.
The aim is to observe these
objects using a V photometric filter both before and after
opposition, and during the critical time when they happen to
pass through a very low phase angle. In this way, we shall
quantify the light-scattering properties of their surface
regolith by measuring the extent of the so-called Opposition
Effect, the shape of the Phase Curve,
as well as derive an unambiguous Rotation Period
for each.
For some time
now, we have had access to a network of telescopes around the
world managed by the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO)
This has been
possible thanks to the assistance of the UK-based Faulkes
Telescope Project https://www.faulkes-telescope.com/ and
so remote imaging of these objects has been underway for a
while.
This project
requires observations close to opposition but poor weather,
especially in the UK, can often mean we fail to obtain
observations at these critical times. In recent years however,
LCO has become increasingly effective in being able to catch
objects at, or very close to opposition and so we have already
managed to obtain coverage at opposition for the first four
asteroids listed. A few observers have also used their own
observatories to pursue the first three objects and we now
have most we need by way of images of these in the bag.
V-filter observations of
(76) Freia and (1343) Nicole are now especially needed. I
therefore encourage observers to take a time-series of at
least 15 minutes duration as part of this latest initiative.
Please correspond offline if you manage to make a start on
either of these objects. Thanks.
We also have a
good number of V-filter images taken through mainly 0.4-m and
1.0-m aperture telescopes of the (243) Ida, (135) Hertha,
(5534) 1941UN and (76) Freia. If you do not have
access to a telescope of your own but would be interested in
carrying out some photometry on these images, then do please
let me know offline and you should be able to contribute to
the work of the Section in that way. We use the
software Astrometrica to do this analysis.
Clear skies!
Richard Miles
Director, Asteroids and Remote
Planets Section
BAA
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