First Russian NEO Asteroid.

[davegrennan]

Congratulations go to Timur Kyrachko of Engelhardt Observatory, Zelenchukskaya Station (MPC #114) on his discovery of NEA 2009 HZ67.  As it happens this turns out to be the first NEO discovered from Russian soil.  Last night (Monday 28th) Timur was monitoring for variable stars in Corona Borealis with a 12" reflector when this object appeared.  As a fast mover it was placed on the NEO confirmation page where your's truly was waiting to pounce.  I submitted an immediate follow up and was delighted to read today that this object has been designated 2009 HZ67

See;
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/mpec/K09/K09H76.html

Timur has had past successes with the recovery of Comet Hartley 2 back in 1991 and he has discovered several main belt asteroids and variable stars.  Hius latest discovery hopefully has him grinning from ear to ear.

Heartiest congrats to Timur.

[martinastro]

Thanks for the info Dave. Congrats to Timur on his discovery and well done to yourself on the follow up work!

[Roman White]

My best congratulations to Timur and also to Dave, you both have done great work together.  

There is a four-paged topic at Astronomy.ru forum about the discovery - it was very interesting to read it. By the way, Denis Denisenko have mentioned (here - in russian) the first Irish asteroid, the 2nd and the 3rd (as it was talken here some time ago), also he provided links to Dave's webiste.

It the same topic, there was an info mentioned about two more NEOs - (2212) Hephaistos и (5324) Lyapunov - which were previously discovered in Soviet Russia, so this one is possibly not the first.
But it is the first amateur NEO from Russia.

[davegrennan]

Roman,  If possible please pass on my sincerest congrats to Timur via the astronomy.ru forum.  If I understood a word of russian I would do so myself.
Timur must be on top of the world right now!!  Denis Denisenko posted some info on the Minor Planet Mailing List and I replied there.

If I understood Denis correctly (2212) Hephaistos and (5324) Lyapunov were discovered from Ukraine so Timur's discovery is the first NEO from Russia.
Please also tell Timur that I will keep 2009 HZ67 on my observing schedule and get additional astrometry for it when possible.  Unless there is a good observation arc it may make it a little more difficult to recover this at next opposition so I will try to help out when that time comes.

[Roman White]

Dave, I have just posted a message to him.

If I understood Denis correctly (2212) Hephaistos and (5324) Lyapunov were discovered from Ukraine so Timur's discovery is the first NEO from Russia.

I read the topic again, more thoroughly and here is the complete info from there:

(yes, I was not correct. Those two were discovered at Crimean observatory, Ukraine)

NEOs, discovered from former USSR countries are (total 6+, as one person has calculated):

(2212) Hephaistos and (5324) Lyapunov from observatory MPC 095 Crimea-Nauchnij (V.Rumiantsev)
2 Amors (2007QA2  and  2008KB12) from Ukraine, MPC А50 Andrushivka (Ju.Ivashchenko)
2006 SF77 - from Lithuania, MPC 152 Moletai (K.Chernis)
2009 HZ67 - Timur's one
and V.Nevski from Belarus has possibly discovered another one - but few info comes from him