Antother Irish Asteroid discovery!

[Paul]

http://www.irishastronomy.org/cms/forum?func=view&catid=11&id=74040

Yikes! Well done Dave Grennan.

[martinastro]

Posted by John McConnell

Guy's, I've just had fantastic news in a phone call from Dave McDonald. Dave Grennan has discovered an asteroid! The new discovery has just been announced by the MPC and is designated 2008 US3. Dave discovered the object on images taken on Tuesday and Thursday evenings using his 14" SCT from observatory in Dublin. This is incredible news just a fortnight after his colleague Dave McDonald discovered 2008 TM9 using the same method. Once again I am thrilled that I was the first to know outside of his family and observing colleagues. Many congratulations Dave on your discovery, and very well deserved. You have put a lot of hard work into astronomy in Ireland, long may it continue. 

[Roman White]

Fantastic! BTW, I saw (9) Metis recently 

[jjb]

Congratulations Dave Greenan .

[martinastro]

Wow, this is an incredible time to be interested in astronomy in this country. Two Irish asteroid discoveries within a short space of time, and both found within Pegasus!. This is remarkable. Dave, congratulations on your remarkable success. I have always believed you would discover an asteroid. In fact ,as coincidence would have it, after Dave Mc Donald's recent discovery I was saying to John McConnell that I wouldn't be surprised if Dave Grennan discovered an asteroid in the near future....and now you have!. I'm delighted for you, and it couldn't happen to a better person. Your tireless dedication paid off. Yourself, and Dave McD, have shown what a single person can do with the correct frame of mind. Your discovery ahs fuelled me with even more inspiration. Full credit to you. I'm also highly impressed by the fact that you plucked this guy out from the sky under LINEAR's nose. It shows that you are not afraid to swim with the sharks. I have a feeling this will be the start of more discoveries to come.

It must feel amazing to make your own dream come true!. Enjoy it Dave, and keep searching...congrats again! 

Thanks also to John for ringing me to let me know the great news. When he told me over the phone I had to do a double take, are you serious? I asked, another asteroid?...I pinched myself. When the shock passed we both felt very proud of you Dave. 

[Roman White]

Well, it is nothing more to add after Martin's reply. My congratulations, Dave! 

[John9929]

If you check this link you will see an animation and still image of Daves asteroid, plus other info on it.
http://webtreatz.com/content/view/68/1/

[martinastro]

Thanks for posting the link John. That's a great animation from Dave!

[davegrennan]

Sorry its taken me so long to get here and thank you guys for the kind words.  Martin:  I saw the write up on your website, many thanks for that.

I cannot overstate that this is a real team effort.  Without the input of lots of people this would not be possible.  Particularly Dave McDonald and Andreas Doppler.  Without their assistance this would definitely not be possible.  Without the inspiration of dedicated amateurs like you guys this would be neither possible nor desirable.  I'm sure the rest of you will forgive me if I single out John McConnell in particular as a real inspiration to us all.

It certainly is a dream come true for me.  When this object appeared on the images on last tuesday.  I had a fair idea that this was a real new one.  Lessons were learned from the couple of near misses around the time when Dave Mc discovered 2008 TM9.  For example I learned that astrometrica (software used for data reduction) can overlay the positions of existing asteroids over an image.  When these images were overlayed there was nothing marked.  So astrometrica thought this was new. So the next question is has one of the big survey like LINEAR discovered this and not told the MPC yet?  This is always the worry.  As it turned out Catalina had already gotten one night on this object.   However two nights observations are required for a discovery and thankfully my two nights were submitted before Catalina got theres.  So there is added satisfaction from beating one of the 'big boys' to it.

There was a bit of a scare on Friday when I submitted these observations.  Within a short time I got an automatic email from the MPC saying that my observations had been rejected. The reason was one measure.  When you look at the animation on my website note how in the third frame the asteroid sort of merges with a nearby star.  That threw off the measure.  The MPC recommended just resubmitting without that measure.  Thats what I did on Friday night.  It was Saturday before I got the word.  Its funny that the emailfrom the minor planet centre is decidedly underwhelming.  All it said was;

DG00001  K08U03S

Meaning: the object you call DG00001 is a new object and is now designated 2008 US3.

If it said something like;

DG00001 (K08U43X

That would be very bad as it would mean the object you call DG00001 is in fact a known asteroid 2008 UX43.  One little bracket makes all the difference.

In some ways its important to remember that although discoveries make the headlines its the other less visible work that is more important.  For example on Saturday night I observed a number of objects.  One of these was an NEO candidate.  Observations from J41 and other observatories helped to determine that this was not an NEO but a hungarian.  So exciting as discoveries are its important to keep at the real work of astrometry.

Anyway I'm due to give a talk to the IAA on November 26th.  This was flagged as an astrophotography talk, however I suspect there'll be lots of asteroid related material discussed!  Thanks again to everyone here for the comments.

[martinastro]

Thanks very much Dave for the further details about your discovery. I did notice the asteroid fading when in close proximity to the field star and thought that it could be a tricky measurement to make. With the exception of the close conjunction with that star the asteroid looks very clear on your images. I'm delighted to read that  you beat Catalina to the chase!!  . I bet waiting for the MPC email reply was a nervous period. Congratulations again Dave and have fun at your astro presentation. A few autographs could be in order. Cheers, and best of luck with asteroid number 2.

[davegrennan]

An article in todays Irish Times;

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1029/1225197273692.html

[davegrennan]

If discovering an asteroid wasn't the highlight of my astro life, I've just discovered something fascinating about 2008 US3.

Between November 9th and 14th 2008 US3 passes right through the heart of M33

How cool is that 

Of course there is a downside in the form of a damn full moon which is right in the wrong part of the sky and just 17degrees from M33 on November 12th.  Of course this wont stop me from trying to image this amazing event.  Whats even more amazing is that this exact event repeats every four years almost to the day!  On November 11th 2012, then on November 9th 2016,  9th November 2020 and 7th November 2024.  After that the four year cycle puts 2008 US3 just outside the bounds of M33.  Isn't that just astonishing!

[John9929]

Dave, that really is astonishing Probably another downside might be the magnitude of US3 which is in the order of....? M33 is still quite observable even with the full moon though it will hamper a good bit. I do hope you or somebody else on here will be able to image it, now that would be something to see! Thanks for letting us know about this fascinating event.

Talking of asteroids, 9929 McConnell should be coming to opposition shortly, I think it's in Virgo though I would need to check that, and maybe it's even past opposition

[martinastro]

Hi Dave, that is incredible. An asteroid, which you discovered, passing through the spiral arms of M33 on a regular basis like that is truly something special. That's got to be the icing on the cake after an exciting period. I hope you get a chance to get an image of this. I wonder what the moon phase will be like for the future M33 encounters?, it might land on a dark night. A capture of 2008 US3 in the same field as M33's HII region would be really something.  Good luck with your imaging and thanks for letting us know