PHO precovery:  MPEC 2004-S07 today reports that Giussepi Forti has located PHO 2004 QT24 in scans of plates from the 1.2m U.K. Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring in New South Wales from 15 July 1993 and 30 August 1998. Estimated to be on the order of 740 meters/yards wide, this object was discovered on 27 August 2004 with the Siding Spring Survey (SSS) 0.5m Uppsala Schmidt Telescope and announced on the 29th in MPEC 2004-Q60. It was observed through September 1st and was picked up again on the 14th with the Australian National University 1m telescope at Siding Spring, as reported in the next day's Daily Orbit Update MPEC.

FMOP news:  MPEC 2004-S11 announces small object 2004 SA, yesterday's SW40G2. Stu Megan notes that Lawrence Garrett is the first FMOP volunteer with two IAU-designated discoveries.

Bits & pieces:  Pasquale Tricarico has posted his thesis on Dynamical Stability of Trojan Asteroids (also as big PDF).

The Asteroid/Comet Connection's
daily news journal about
asteroids, comets, and meteors

Today's issue status: done, updated

• News briefs – PHO precovery, FMOP news
  + bits & pieces
• Risk monitoring – NEODyS posts 2004 RQ252, SCN campaign for 2004 RW164

<Yesterday|Tomorrow> Report news here [alt]

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 ^[ ] MPECs 2004-S12 and 2004-S12 report NEO recoveries credited in part to the Faulkes North 2m robotic educational telescope on Haleakala in Hawaii, operated in this case by Alan Fitzsimmons and Stephen Lowry in Northern Ireland.  ^[ ] An item at Space.com today cautiously predicts that comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) “will become easily visible in binoculars and small telescopes this winter and possibly to the unaided eye” for northern hemisphere observers during late December into January.  ^[ ] The University of Arizona has a news release today about dedication of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham during 13-15 October.

Risk monitoring 17 Sept.

NEODyS today joined JPL in posting small object 2004 RQ252, which was announced yesterday, and for which no new observations were reported in the Friday Daily Orbit Update MPEC (DOU).

The DOU does have observations of 2004 RW164, the first reported since its announcement on the 14th. It was caught with the Spacewatch 1.8m telescope in Arizona yesterday morning. Today both risk monitors removed their earliest impact solutions, beginning in 2011 and 2013, and NEODyS cut its solution count and solidly lowered its overall risk ratings. JPL also lowered its ratings, but increased its solution count, which includes a dozen beyond the NEODyS 2080 time horizon.

Today the European Spaceguard Central Node posted an observing campaign for 2004 RW164, saying that “further observations are urgently required during this lunation because its sky uncertainty will grow consistently during the coming full moon period.”