ASTEROIDS AND COMETS FROM OBSERVATORIO ASTRONÓMICO LOS MOLINOS

Instrumentation

• Location (by GPS):
  latitude -34 45' 19"
  longitude -56 11' 25"
  altitude 110m
  
• Telescope: 0.35m f/6.4 reflector Broadhurst Clarkson & Fueller
• Detector: HiSIS22-SS 768x512 pixels, no filters available.
• Field: 7x10 arcmin
• Scale: 0.8 arcsec per pixel
• Limit magnitude: 17
• Observable nights per year: 250
• Seeing: 3-4 arcsec
• Observers: students and amateurs
• Calibration: IRAF & PCVista

In course PROJECTS

• Targets: southern asteroids (NEOs, unusuals and critical) and comets
• Production: approximately 50 precise positions / month submitted to MPC
• Soft: Astrometrica (H. Raab)
• Catalogue: USNO-A

• Targets: asteroids with poorly known rotation periods
• Method: differential (unfiltered) photometry asteroid-star
• Limit magnitude: 13 for S/N > 100
• Soft: IRAF
• Period analysis: mainly Gallardo & Ferraz-Mello (1997)

• Method: align and add several frames to get good S/N and then apply digital filters
• Soft: IRAF & Imagine