Asteroid Rotation

Introduction

Asteroid Rotation - Mon 18 June

Asteroid Rotation Report 

The focus of this themed observing day is to find out if we can plot a light curve of an asteroid. A light curve is a graph that plots the intensity of light from an object against time, and by looking at the peaks in the curve we may be able to estimate the rotation rate of the asteroid! 

At the moment we don't know if the CCD on FTN is sensitive enough to pick up such small variations in the light intensity from an asteroid, so this will be a good test!

To measure the magnitude of the asteroid, we'll use Astrometrica. There is a Background Science document about asteroid rotation and light curves available below, as well as software instructions for using Astrometrica for this day.

Users who are interested in being involved in this project can book a session at the bottom of this page.

Background Science

Astrometrica Instructions

Bookings

The following sessions are available for this themed observing day. To book a session email with your name, school name and the session time you want (remember to specify if the time you want is UTC or BST).