We have been working on improving long observing runs with the robotic telescope this past month. Asteroids are an excellent target: they move constantly relative to the background stars; Their orbital parameters change often enough to warrant close scrutiny; There are hundreds of thousands of them to study; Photometric studies are as important as astrometric studies; All of this is well within the reach of Exeter students!

While we perfect our methods, the following is a two day series of asteroid #783 Nora.  Nora has a strongly elliptical orbit around the Sun with its closest approach being 1.8 AU and its most distant 2.8 AU. In this two-night series, Nora had two images taken one hour apart each night for two nights. Enjoy!

Minor Planet 783 Nora