The Indiana Asteroid Program was a photographic astronomical survey of asteroids during 1949–1967, at the U.S. Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana.[2] The program was initiated by Frank K. Edmondson of Indiana University using a 10-inch f/6.5 Cooke triplet astrographic camera.[3][4]
Its objectives included recovering asteroids that were far from their predicted positions, making new orbital calculations or revising old ones, deriving magnitudes accurate to about 0.1 mag, and training students.[3]
When the observatory's 36-inch (0.91-meter) reflecting telescope proved unsuitable for searching for asteroids, postdoctoral fellow James Cuffey arranged the permanent loan of a 10-inch (25-centimeter) lens from the University of Cincinnati.[5] Mounted in a shed near the main observatory, the instrument using the borrowed lens was responsible for all of the program's discoveries.[6]
By 1958, the program had produced 3,500 photographic plates showing 12,000 asteroid images and had published about 2,000 accurate positions in the Minor Planet Circular.[3] When the program ended in 1967, it had discovered a total of 119 asteroids.[1] The program's highest numbered discovery, 30718 Records, made in 1955, was not named until November 2007 (M.P.C. 61269).[7][8]
The program ended when the lights of the nearby city of Indianapolis became too bright to permit the long exposures required for the photographic plates.[9] The program's nearly 7,000 photographic plates are now archived at Lowell Observatory.[10]
List of discovered minor planets
The Indiana Asteroid Program has discovered 119 asteroids during 1949–1966. The Minor Planet Center officially credits these discoveries to "Indiana University" rather than to the program itself.[1]
| 1575 Winifred |
20 April 1950
|
| 1578 Kirkwood |
10 January 1951
|
| 1602 Indiana |
14 March 1950
|
| 1615 Bardwell |
28 January 1950
|
| 1721 Wells |
3 October 1953
|
| 1728 Goethe Link |
12 October 1964
|
| 1729 Beryl |
19 September 1963
|
| 1741 Giclas |
26 January 1960
|
| 1746 Brouwer |
14 September 1963
|
| 1751 Herget |
27 July 1955
|
| 1761 Edmondson |
30 March 1952
|
| 1762 Russell |
8 October 1953
|
| 1763 Williams |
13 October 1953
|
| 1764 Cogshall |
7 November 1953
|
| 1765 Wrubel |
15 December 1957
|
| 1766 Slipher |
7 September 1962
|
| 1767 Lampland |
7 September 1962
|
| 1788 Kiess |
25 July 1952
|
| 1798 Watts |
4 April 1949
|
| 1799 Koussevitzky |
25 July 1950
|
| 1822 Waterman |
25 July 1950
|
| 1824 Haworth |
30 March 1952
|
| 1826 Miller |
14 September 1955
|
| 1827 Atkinson |
7 September 1962
|
| 1852 Carpenter |
1 April 1955
|
| 1853 McElroy |
15 December 1957
|
| 1952 Hesburgh |
3 May 1951
|
| 1953 Rupertwildt |
29 October 1951
|
| 1955 McMath |
22 September 1963
|
| 1971 Hagihara |
14 September 1955
|
| 1988 Delores |
28 September 1952
|
| 1994 Shane |
4 October 1961
|
| 1996 Adams |
16 October 1961
|
| 1997 Leverrier |
14 September 1963
|
| 2007 McCuskey |
22 September 1963
|
| 2023 Asaph |
16 September 1952
|
| 2024 McLaughlin |
23 October 1952
|
| 2026 Cottrell |
30 March 1955
|
| 2059 Baboquivari |
16 October 1963
|
| 2065 Spicer |
9 September 1959
|
| 2069 Hubble |
29 March 1955
|
| 2070 Humason |
14 October 1964
|
| 2086 Newell |
20 January 1966
|
| 2110 Moore-Sitterly |
7 September 1962
|
| 2160 Spitzer |
7 September 1956
|
| 2161 Grissom |
17 October 1963
|
| 2165 Young |
7 September 1956
|
| 2168 Swope |
14 September 1955
|
| 2182 Semirot |
21 March 1953
|
| 2196 Ellicott |
29 January 1965
|
| External images |
|---|
 http://newsinfo.iu.edu/pub/libs/images/usr/4718.jpg Professor Frank Edmondson manipulates the 10-inch lens telescope at the Goethe Link Observatory in Brooklyn, Indiana, in the 1950s. Source: Indiana University News Bureau. |
| http://newsinfo.iu.edu/pub/libs/images/usr/4719.jpg Professor Frank Edmondson looks on as Esther Barnhart -- wife of Philip Barnhart (M.A. Astronomy 1955) -- takes precise measurements of an asteroid's location. By comparing locations of an asteroid on different plates taken an hour apart, its orbit could be calculated. Source: Indiana University News Bureau. |
References
- ^ a b c "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. 4 September 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ^ Indiana University Department of Astronomy: Frank Edmondson Home Page Archived 2008-06-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Gehrels, Thomas (February 1958). "The Indiana asteroid program". Astronomical Journal. 63: 50. Bibcode:1958AJ.....63...50G. doi:10.1086/107684.
- ^ Asteroids II Machine-Readable Data Base - Version March 1988, Binzel, R.P. et al., eds. 1989, Univ. of Arizona Press, Note 103: Archived 2011-08-07 at the Wayback Machine"Planets discovered by the Indiana Asteroid Program, Goethe Link Observatory, Indiana University. This program was conceived and directed by F. K. Edmondson; the plates were blinked and measured astrometrically by B. Potter and, following her retirement, by D. Owings, and the photometry was performed under the direction of T. Gehrels. During the years 1947-1967, in which the plates were exposed, a large number of people participated in various aspects of the program."
- ^ Ken Kingery, Betting on a Sure Thing: A "Record" Ending to Indiana Asteroid Program, Indiana Alumni Magazine, v.1, no. 2, September/October 2008, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Alumni Association, p. 46; See also, Space Daily.
- ^ Id.
- ^ "IU Asteroid Program "records" final chapter". Indiana University – News Room. 7 April 2008. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ^ Kingery, p. 47.
- ^ Kingery, p. 47, and Indiana University Department of Astronomy: Frank Edmondson Home Page Archived 2008-06-13 at the Wayback Machine
