Minor Planet Bulletin Issue 39-4 - Mike Foylan

I see Mike Foylan's paper on minor planet 3397 Leyla made it in to the current issue of the MPB.
www.minorplanet.info/MPB/MPB_39-4.pdf
Well done Mike!

Michael.

There is a huge amount of work goes into getting an asteroid lightcurve. And an equally huge amount of work in putting together a paper for publication. This news just in:

"The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (commonly just called "ADS") now lists the Minor Planet Bulletin as a refereed journal."

This is fantastic achievement Mike and really great news - many congratulations.

Dave

Good one Mike.

Mark C.

The Minor Planet Bulletin is now referenced in the SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service.


"The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a Digital Library portal for researchers in Astronomy and Physics, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under a NASA grant."

The service goes a little bit further in that it refences the individual published papers. For example:

adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012MPBu...39..212F

Thanks Guys.
It’s quite pleasing to finally have a paper published and it’s definitely worth the time and effort. I would like to thank Dave McDonald, Eamonn Ansbro and Brian Warner (Canopus software) for their advice without whom the paper would not have been published.
A while back I purchased a book by Roger Dymock entitled; “Asteroids and Dwarf Planets and How To Observe Them”, I learned as much as I could from that book and with some help from other amateur astronomers on this forum an observatory code was awarded for my astrometry work. As interesting and important as this work is it was also time to diversify and this is where I started work in photometry of asteroids. I purchased Brian Warner’s excellent software package “MPO Canopus” and his book “A Practical Guide To Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis” again, one can learn so much from this book and practising with the software eventually lead me to completing actual photometry observations of minor planet 3397 leyla. The observations where relatively straight forward (with some advance planning), it was the actual analysis and writing of the paper that took up the most time but like I said already, it was well worth it and I have learnt a lot from it.
If you’re thinking of going for an observatory code or completing photometry work on asteroids there are a number of amateur astronomers on this forum who are willing to help you, me included.

Best wishes and clear skies
Mike

Well done Mike.
A few of the Irish amateurs from IFAS were at the BAA Comet and Asteroids and Remote Planets Section meeting in Milton Keynes, UK last week. A lot was learnt whereby amateur astronomers joined together, networking, future collaboration. This has spurned on some of us amateurs here whom have been recognised for their contributions in recent times.

The meeting was a very successful day. A wide range of topics covered was one aspect of the day having a good number of professionals as well as amateurs speaking at what is in effect a rather specialist BAA meeting. Techniques and methodology to observe comets and asteroids, especially now they can better see how their contributions can make a difference.

Opportunities for example, ESA have decided very recently to target a completely new asteroid that has a lack of photometry, previous photometry from 3 years back but were never published. Apparently its a better target than the original one, because it is closer by a third of the distance and therefore less fuel and cost and quicker to rendeavous too. This has created interest within the amateur community to do photometry like what Mike Foylan and Dave McDonald are carrying out successfully.

It also creates opportunities for others here on the forum to get involved. There is help on the IFAS forum if you want to do photometry with your telescopes and who may wish to make a contribution, while learning a lot about the pleasure of doing the science.

The meeting also reflected the international character of astronomy with speakers from several countries.

Clear skies

Eamonn