1997 YC8 1998 AA 1998 OV1 1998 SH4
UT Discovery Date: December 25.08889 (UT), 1997
Our Initial Designation: FBAC30
Discoverers: Cynthia Gustava and Keith Rivich
Our Astrometry
Orbital Elements
Next Opposition: 19-Dec-2001 (mag 18.6)
Next Opposition Ephemeris
Current Ephemeris
Comments: Discovered by Cynthia and Keith on Christmas Eve!
Epilog: Professional searches recoved it for it's second opposition, and for it's third as well in the summer of 2000.
UT Discovery Date: January 1, 02:09 (UT), 1998
Our Initial Designation: FBAC32
Discoverers: Elizabeth and Bill Dillon
Our Astrometry
Orbital Elements
Next Opposition: March 6, 1999
Next Opposition Ephemeris
Current Ephemeris
Comments: We discovered this asteroid on New Year's Eve (CST) while
following up on the two asteroids that Cynthia and Keith discovered around Christmas. I didn't realize we had a discovery until doing the astrometry the next morning on 1997 YC8. Because the weather made confirmation impossible, I contacted Paul Comba. Paul was able to confirm the discovery the next night. I emailed our combined astrometry to the MPC on the evening of the 2nd. On the morning of the 3rd, I received a brief email from Brian Marsden with our designation, the very first asteroid
designation of 1998!
Recent orbital elements show that we were not the first to observe the asteroid, but we still have credit for the discovery, either because someone was late in turning their observations in, or the positions came from many different observers who were unable to confirm the discovery. This makes up for us getting "scooped" on FBAC 31 at Christmas!
Epilog: on the early moring hours of February 14 (UT), 1999, we recovered 1998 AA! This was the first time we have both discovered and recovered one of our own asteroids. This was our second mult-oppositional asteroid. In the summer of 2000, professional searches recoved AA for it's third opposition in the star clouds of the Milky Way.
UT Discovery Date: July 24, 04:04:30 (UT), 1998
Our Initial Designation: FBAC36
Discoverers: Dennis Borgman and Keith Rivich
Our Astrometry
Orbital Elements
Current Ephemeris
Next Opposition:
Comments: Dennis and Keith ended our longest asteroid discovery drought since we started discovering asteroids. We've had several "one-night stands", but no official discoveries until now. Mostly it's been El Nino clouds, Mexican forest fires (which wiped-out the month of May for us), equipment problems, etc. Hopefully this will put us back on a roll!
UT Discovery Date: September 19, 05:25:30 (UT), 1998
Our Initial Designation: FBAC38
Discoverer: Bill Dillon
Our Astrometry
Orbital Elements
Current Ephemeris
Next Opposition: 18-Nov-99 (mag 18.5)
Next Opposition Ephemeris
Comments: After I shot the first of four planned fields, the sky clouded up. I almost decided to quit, but Tracy Knauss pointed out that the skies last week had done this, only to clear. Holes did develope in the overcast, but it was hard to get a clearing lasting four minutes (our typical exposure duration). Over the next couple of hours, I was able to take five images - only two of them being usable. It was enough. There were two moving objects in the CCD field - a double discovery!
The next night, I again had to shoot through holes for several hours in order to get the confirmation images.
Post Script: 1998 SH4 is our multi-opposition asteroid! It was tied by Gareth Williams to a sighting in 1991, but we retain the designation! Given that this asteroid will be about magnitude 18.5 at the next opposition, it is our best candidate for becoming our first named and numbered asteroid.
Epilog: On Monday, February 12, 2001, SH4 became our first permanently numbered asteroid, .
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