Honour for Dave McDonald.

[John9929]

Hi folks,

Great news this morning, I'm delighted to announce that our friend Dave McDonald has been
honoured by the International Astronomical Union with the naming of an asteroid in his honour.
Some months back I suggested the name to Dr Edward Bowell at Lowell Observatory Anderson
Mesa Station outside Flagstaff Arizona and he gave us one discovered by the LONEOS team. Four
out of four isn't bad! I was informed this morning by Ted and it's now official! The full citation reads:

"(21782) Davemcdonald = 1999 RV239
Discovered 1999 Sept. 8 by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search at the
Anderson Mesa Station.Irish amateur astronomer David McDonald (b. 1964) undertakes
astrometry of asteroids. He is active in promoting amateur astronomy in Ireland".

Dave has done much to promote amateur astronomy all over the island of Ireland and is a very
deserving candidate. Well done Dave and many congratulations!! I'm glad to have had a part in
it. I spoke to Dave a while ago and he is totally gubsmacked!

[Paul]

That's marvellous news John! And congratulations Dave, a great honour well deserved for excellent work.

[martinastro]

A big congratulations to Dave on a reward fully deserved!!!. Dave has done alot for astronomy in Ireland over the last few years both with out reach and his own cutting edge astronomical imaging in the field of Minor Planet (asteroid) astrometry and NEO follow up work which gets submitted to the MPC. He also confirmed a supernova which exploded in a distant galaxy (no easy task) providing rapid and much needed data for the discoverers in the US. With such deep involvement within the asteroid field it is fitting to have one of these objects named in his honor!. His award is all the more exceptional by having his first and last name as the designation which is the icing on the celestial cake. With 21782 Davemcdonald now orbiting between Mars and Jupiter the next challenge is to get an image of it!. With Dave's dedication I would not be surprised if he discovers an asteroid or supernova of his own during the course of his CCD patrols.

Congrats again Dave - and enjoy it!! 

[TerryMoseley]

Hi Dave, Very many congratulations! It's very well deserved. I'm glad to have helped John in a very small way. I'm sure you'll be out next clear night trying to image it! And thanks to John for initiating the whole process.  Terry

[dmcdona]

Folks - I posted a similar version of this over on the IFAS boards so apologies to those who have already read it.

Thank you all very much for your warm congratulations. It is truly a great honour and I'm very very proud to receive the distinction. But I would like to point out that I genuinely feel that all ye folks in the Astronomy field in Ireland have played your very own part. Over the years I have been given opportunities, received technical advice, help and assistance from very many of you. So you should all take some of the credit - I certainly could not have done it without you.

I would also point out that I believe there are others in Ireland who equally deserve such an honour, even one or two who I personally think deserve it more than me - I hope they receive it some day and get the recognition they deserve.

I would like to thank those who were involved in putting the citation forward, to the Lowell Observatory and Ted Bowell for setting aside a chunk of rock just for me and for those of you who surreptitiously gathered my personal data without letting on at all (Dave Grennan, Michael O'Connell and Terry Mosely). Forgive me if there were others involved who I'm not aware of - thanks to you too.

My last mention goes to John McConnell. John rang me this morning to give me the news and after I had picked myself up, we had a great old chat. John was the main proponent of the citation and he very kindly spent the time and energy seeing it through. So thanks John and, although I know you wouldn't dream of taking any, this credit is also yours.

On a final note, a few words on 21782 Davemcdonald: At the moment, it is an eye-popping magnitude 21.1. By mid-August, it brightens to a blistering 20.7... It isnt until April 2009 that it hits a blinding mag 18.3 - at which point I might just be able to image it with the C14. I'll do my best to get an animation if I can. If that fails, I'll have to wait until July 2013 when it his a retina burning 17.5 - but its the middle of the summer  Still, I can always follow its progress on my planetarium program... 

Thank you all very much for your kind words.

Warm wishes.
Dave

p.s. - I've had a browse of these boards - first chance what with work and all - so I'm now registered and look forward to contributing as ever!

[eansbro]

Dave,

You wouldn't believe it, but I have just got back from
Asteroids,Comets and Meteorites Conference 2008 in Baltimore, USA (jet lagged still) where they announced the asteroid honouring names at the banquet early this week.  There were 46 names honoured.  That part of the event was like the Hollywood OSCARS.  Specific names were called up because those astronomers were in the audience.

However, many congratulations and well deserved. I'm absolutely thrilled for all the work you have done on asteroid astrometry for MPC, the IFAS Advanced Observing Programme and fostering Irish astronomy on the island.  Thank you for especially your inspirational role of encouraging me and others to make the effort of following through Observatory Codes, the challenges of the IFAS Advanced Observing Programme on supernovae and now the exoplanets, and using a beating stick on some of us to do asteroid astrometry for MPC.
Looks like I have no excuse now to do some further asteroid astrometry.

BTW, I had a presentation paper at the conference on the survey on detecting EKBOs at very high latitudes..  The survey went a full magnitude beyond the Palomar NEAT survey and has shown that there are no EKBOs at high latitudes so far.     

I'll see if I can image the asteroid  21782 Davemcdonald sometime.  Its certainly faint one at 21+mag.

You've probably seen the IFAS post response.

Eamonn Ansbro
MPC J62
www.kingslandobservatory.com

[John9929]

Dave, thanks for the kind words, but as you have already said I won't take any credit for seeing the job done, it was my greatest pleasure. My job is done when the asteroid is officially named, but as I have mentioned before elsewhere with today's technology it's getting much harder to keep the secret. All I do really is suggest the name and if asked by the discoverer, prepare a citation. Getting an asteroid named can sometimes take a few months ( in your case the procedure started in January). If you happen to ask someone who has made many discoveries such as Ted Bowell, they are only allowed to submit one name per month, so it can take a long time to get your turn! . The citations have also gotten harded to prepare, the IAU SBNC strictly ask in excess of 300 characters (including the full stops etc!) and you might not even get that with so many objects being named every month. It has been my goal since I got my own back in 2001, to add a few more Irish names to the ever growing list of members in our very select club, and I am delighted that so far this has been 100% successful.

Eamonn, I'm sure you got a pleasant surprise when the name was announced?

Welcome to the forum, it's great to have you along.

[dmcdona]

John - modest as ever    But thanks again for putting in all the effort - its great that there is someone out there selflessly working to have Irish Astronomers receive credit for their work.

Eamonn - glad to have you back in Ireland - what was the "asteroid honouring" session all about?  And what were you honoured for?  I assume (and hope) it was for your EKBO work?

Incredible that that you are one mag above NEAT

And by the way, to set the record straight, any work I have done on extrasolar planets has only been by following your lead - that is certainly a credit you must take for yourself...

Anyhow, I'd better let you get back to your MPC work 

Dave

[eansbro]

Hi Dave,

Just to clarify, at the ACM 2008 (Baltimore) the last part of the banquet on Wednesday 16th  was honouring astronomers with asteroid names.   There was a list of 46 names which included yours.

The reason I was there is because I had a poster paper.   I had to attend the poster
session for any questions  on Wednesday.  The paper showed the results from a 2 year survey at high latitudes that there were no EKBOs to magnitude 21.5.  This survey went beyond NEAT which also carried out a similar survey to 20.5 magnitude with no discoveries except for Eris and EL61 back in 2005. 

Hi John,

Thanks for the welcome.  I look forward to contributing to this impressive and well organised site.

Eamonn

[martinastro]

Hi Eamonn, great to have you on here!. I think you would be the man to image Dave's asteroid when it becomes more favourably placed.

Keep up the great work.