The Minor Planet Amateur / Professional Workshop 2001
Program Schedule
Thursday, May 3
- 2-4 pm - Spacewatch open house on Kitt Peak
- 5-8 pm - Reception and registration at Wildcat room, Sheraton Four-Points
Hotel
Friday, May 4 - Sheraton Conference Center (behind hotel)
- 8:00 Registration
- 9:00 Welcome and logistics (Larson, McGaha) (10min. presentation+5 min.
questions)
SEARCH
- 9:15 Al Harris - Where are we at in NEO inventory and population
estimates (20+10)
- 9:45 Steve Larson - What the "big" surveys are doing and how they are
doing it (15+10)
- 10:10 Carl Hergenrother - Near-sun searching (15+5)
- 10:30 break
- poster: G.Tancredi - A survey of near-earth asteroids in the southern
hemisphere
- 11:00 Rob Whiteley - The University of Hawaii Aten Survey (15+5)
ASTROMETRY
- 11:20 John Rogers - Coordinated Amateur Recovery of one-opposition NEAs (15+10)
- 11:45 Bill Owen - Overlapping plates method for astrometry (15+5)
- 12:05 David Dixon - Case Study of the Precovery of 2001 AE2 (15+10)
- 12:30 lunch
ORBITS
- 2:00 Melissa Kirk - Neo Followup at Powell Observatory (15+10)
- 2:25 Steve Chesley - JPL NEO Sentry computational system (35+10)
- 3:10 Gonzalo Tancredi - How many natural satellites has Earth? (15+5)
- 3:30 break
- 4:00 James McGaha - Detection techniques for followup of faint NEOs (25+10)
- 4:35 Peter Mack - robotic telescopes (30+10)
- 6:00 Tour of Steward Observatory Mirror Lab
Saturday, May 5 - Sheraton Conference Center
NEAR
- 9:00 Bill Owen - NEAR (30+10)
PHOTOMETRY
- 9:40 Mike Newberry - Photometry of faint, moving objects (20+10)
- 10:10 Rob Whiteley - Photometry of fast rotators (15+5)
- 10:30 Break
- 11:00 Photometry open forum
- 11:30 Bill Romanishin - using small telescopes to monitor Centaurs (15+5)
RESOURCES
- 11:50 Richard Kowalski - MPML and coordination with the ALPO NEO section (10+5)
- 12:05 Dan Durda - Planetary Society Shoemaker awards (15+10)
- 12:30 Lunch
- 2:00 Bob Denny - A progress report on ASCOM (15+5)
- 2:20 Gareth Williams and Tim Spahr - open discussion about the MPC
- 3:30 Break
- 4:00 software demonstrations I
- Bob Denny - Pinpoint
- Mike Newberry - MIRA
(need to vacate room by 5:00 for Banquet prep)
- 7:00 BANQUET
Sunday, May 6 - Sheraton Conference Center
INSTRUMENTATION
- 9:00 Jeff Medkeff - Small Robotic Observatories: Economics, Operations, and Future Direction (40+10)
- 9:50 Larry Weber, Steve Brady - auto-focus (15+5)
- 10:10 Joy Lambert - Drift scanning (15+5)
- 10:30 break
- poster: Roy Tucker - Moving Object and Transient Event Search System (MOTESS)
- 11:00 Bob Elliott - Converting a surplus military 24" telescope
astrometry (15+5)
- 11:20 Chris Wolfe - A Comparison of Three Telescope & CCD Combinations
for Asteroid Astrometry (15+5)
- 11:40 Richard Ditteon - The Oakley Observatory (15+5)
- 12:00 software demonstration II
- John Rogers - Computer Aided Astronomy
- 12:30 Lunch
- 3:00-6:00 Catalina Sky Survey open house at Catalina Observatory