Asteroid Zoo Talk

Unknown Asteroids are they becoming more scarce ?

  • djsimister by djsimister

    Seems that it is now a rare event to catch one! In my case, nearly all those i have recently marked up are generally rather suspect, ambiguous, subjective or imagined! Therefore, probably not viable candidates. Most that i think i have found are so very faint and so blended in with noise, that i can never find it again unless i comment to myself as to where it is in the image!

    Anyway, here's what i believe! is a potential #asteroid I think! it moves out of extreme right corner heading upwards from right to left apx along 5 0 clock line only in 3 images due to a bad set. Possibly an #unknown or possibly imagined
    :~/

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  • nicro46 by nicro46

    I agree. the impression is that we are exploring an area on the edge of the 'ecliptic with very few asteroids known and / or unknown. In my case, since the program is started again after the break, I have not found ONE unknown asteroid between images marked in green as "you who see the first"

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  • Andy_Arg by Andy_Arg

    The only known asteroids ar from the "old" set (April 2012). I think we are viewing only images that contain no known asteroids from year 2012 (except april).

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  • AstroTinker by AstroTinker in response to nicro46's comment.

    nicro, this is my experience also ( seems like Andy is getting them all... d;D ). Even at the edge, though, I would think there would be a few of the erratics found across the years that should show up, even if we can't see them. Could the algorithms that estimate if we 'could' see them in the frame be a bit too tight? Might be interesting to compare some of our 'new' finds with what IS in the frame - visible or not(by the algorithm), and see if it has underestimated us??

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  • AstroTinker by AstroTinker

    From the Catalina Sky Survey FAQ:
    http://nesssi.cacr.caltech.edu/DataRelease/FAQ.html

    Why does the object I entered not have Catalina Surveys data?

    1. If an object is within 10-15 degrees of the Galactic plane it will not have Catalina Surveys photometry. This is because the fields are too crowded for our survey.

    2. If an object is below Dec~-30 degrees or above Dec~65 degress, the area is not covered by the data release.

    3. If the object is brighter than V = 12, the object will not have good data as such bright objects saturate in the images we take. This is the case for many, if not most, variable star archetypes (eg. RR Lyr, Beta Lyrae, R Cor Bor, etc.).

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