Astrometrica Minor Planets

(3184) Raab

In May, 1996, the Minor Planet Circulars (MPCs) announced the naming of minor planet (3184) as follows:

(3184) Raab = 1949 QC
Discovered 1949 Aug. 22 by E. L. Johnson at Johannesburg.
Named in honor of Herbert Raab (b. 1969), author of the widely-used and acclaimed Astrometrica software package. Astrometrica has enabled many amateur astronomers to participate in their own astrometric programs on comets and minor planets. Raab is a software developer and is also president of the Linzer Astronomische Gemeinschaft, the oldest amateur association in Austria. Name proposed by B. G. Marsden and G. V. Williams.

In the image above, Peter Birtwhistle captured minor planet (3184) Raab as it passed close to galaxy NGC 3628 in Leo on January 18, 2003. He used the 0.3m f/6.3 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at his Great Shefford Observatory. Click on the image to see a larger, animated version of the image (285 kB), sowing the asteroid's motion.

(6245) Ikufumi

Ikufumi Makino has supported Astrometrica and it's author continuously over the past years. Without his help, Astrometrica would not be what it is today! Thus, the author of Astrometrica was very pleased that in June 1998, the Minor Planet Circulars (MPCs) announced the naming of minor planet (6245) in honor of Ikufumi Makino. The citation reads as follows:

(6245) Ikufumi = 1990 SO4
Discovered 1990 Sept. 27 by T. Urata at the Nihondaira Observatory.
Named in honor of Ikufumi Makino (b. 1944), a telecommunications systems engineer and active amateur astronomer. His extensive knowledge of computer technologies has enabled him to contribute to astronomical magazines many articles about systems for making observations. He has played an important role in introducing and spreading the data-reduction tool Astrometrica in Japan. He is a collaborating member of the Nihondaira Observatory.

The images above were taken by Ikufumi Makino himself on April 9, 1999, using a 0.2m f/6.3 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope. Note the movement of the asteroid during the 46 minutes between the two images!

(49109) Agnesraab

In early 2004, my wife Agnes Raab was honored for patiently tolerating whenever I spent too much time working on Astrometrica, and not enough with my family. The citation, published in the January 2004 Minor Planet Circulars (MPCs) reads as follows:

(49109) Agnesraab = 1998 SO2
Discovered 1998 Sept. 18 by R. Linderholm at Lime Creek.
Austrian amateur astronomer Agnes Raab (b. 1969) is a long-time member of the Linzer Astronomische Gemeinschaft. The first prediscovery image of this minor planet was found on a plate exposed on her eighth birthday.

Above, a small part of the original discovery images, taken by Bob Linderholm with a SBIG ST-7 CCD camera on a 10" f/3.6 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at the Lime Creek observatory in Nebraska, USA, is shown. For more information about minor planet (49109) Agnesraab, follow this link. Thank you, Bob, for sharing your discovery with us!
