1996 TO1 1996 TC9 1996 VA3 1996 TV60
UT Discovery Date: 01:20 October 7, 1996
Our Initial Designation: FBAC09
Discoverers: Bill Dillon, Keith Rivich
Our Astrometry
Orbital Elements
Next Opposition: Asteroid is lost.
Next Opposition Ephemeris
Comments: This was our first "accidental" discovery. We were following up on on 1996 PL1. We were looking so intently for the faint image of PL1, that we almost missed the much brigher moving object at the bottom of the frame! Although about 17th magnitude when discovered, TO1 faded rapidly. After a week, the asteroid was almost 20th magnitude. Perhaps we caught a sun glint off a metallic asteroid?
On the night of November 3-4, 1996, with the next dark moon, we failed to recover TO1.
UT Discovery Date: 05:10 October 13, 1996
Our Initial Designation: FBAC10
Discoverers: Bill Dillon, Randy Pepper
Our Astrometry
Orbital Elements
Next Opposition: 3-June-2000 (mag 20.0)
Next Opposition Ephemeris
Comments: We thought we had discovered three asteroids this night, but only this one turned out to be real. It faded fast, and we could not recover it during the next dark-moon period (we searched on Nov 3-4, 8-9).
Epilog: In April of 1999, someone recovered TC9, submitting 5 astrometric positions on it. We learned of the recovery in May. This is our third (after 1998 SH4 and 1999 AA) multi-opposition asteroid.
UT Discovery Date: 05:11 November 10, 1996 (possibly on November 4)
Our Initial Designation: FBAC11
Discoverers: Dennis Borgman, Bill Dillon, Randy Pepper, Keith Rivich
Our Astrometry
Orbital Elements
Next Opposition: June 16, 1999 (second try!).
Next Opposition Ephemeris
Comments: Dennis Borgman noticed a moving object on one of our frames of Nov 4.2 UT, several days after we shot the image. We had not noticed anything too unusual at the time. I computed a Vaisala orbit using the
MPC's
utility. Keith and I imaged the predicted position on Nov 10.21 UT and found a moving object near the predicted position, moving the expected direction and speed. We delayed the report until Keith and Dennis got confirmation images on the next night. I'm now convinced that the object on Nov 4.2 is our "prediscovery" image.
UT Discovery Date: 01:20 October 7, 1996 (actually on November 16, 1996)
Our Initial Designation: FBAC12
Discoverers: Keith Rivich, Bill Dillon
Our Astrometry
Orbital Elements
Next Opposition: Asteroid is lost.
Next Opposition Ephemeris
Comments: Keith had gone back to make astrometric mearsurements on our August discovery 1996 PL1 (now 6809 P-L). In the excitement about the discovery of TO1, we had never gone back and done our intented target. On November 16th, he spotted another moving object that we missed on-site.
I noted that it was moving north, and might also be on the confirmation images we took of TO1 on the following night. Keith succeeded in finding a moving object on the next night's images. I used the MPC's vaisala ephemeris generator to predict where the object should be based on the movement of the first night, and they matched Keith's new positions!
Thus on the night of October 6-7, we imaged three asteroids on one frame, resulting in our second double discovery.
Epilog: We recently found TV60's image on a frame we took of 1996 TO1 on the night of October 10. Thus we acquired a three-day arc on TV60 while being unaware of it at the time!
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