Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers make contributions in doing citizen science, such as by monitoring variable stars, double stars, sunspots, or occultations of stars by the Moon or asteroids, or by discovering transient astronomical events, such as comets, galactic novae or supernovae in other galaxies.
A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. As of June 2021, there are 429 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons are important because the determination of their orbits provides estimates on the mass and density of the primary, allowing insights of their physical properties that is generally not otherwise possible.
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks from view (occults) an object in the background. In this general sense, occultation applies to the visual scene observed from low-flying aircraft when foreground objects obscure distant objects dynamically, as the scene changes over time.
Astraea is a large asteroid from the asteroid belt. Its surface is highly reflective (bright) and its composition is probably a mixture of nickel–iron with silicates of magnesium and iron. It is an S-type asteroid in the Tholen classification system.
Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. is an American astrophysicist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics for his discovery with Russell Alan Hulse of a "new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation."
139 Juewa is a very large and dark main belt asteroid. It is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous material. It was the first asteroid discovered from China.
Metis is one of the larger main-belt asteroids. It is composed of silicates and metallic nickel-iron, and may be the core remnant of a large asteroid that was destroyed by an ancient collision. Metis is estimated to contain just under half a percent of the total mass of the asteroid belt.
Parthenope is a large, bright main-belt asteroid.
Egeria is a large main-belt G-type asteroid. It was discovered by Annibale de Gasparis on November 2, 1850. Egeria was named by Urbain Le Verrier, whose computations led to the discovery of Neptune, after the mythological nymph Egeria of Aricia, Italy, the wife of Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome.
Thetis, minor planet designation 17 Thetis, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 90 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 17 April 1852, by German astronomer Robert Luther at Bilk Observatory in Düsseldorf, Germany. He named his first asteroid discovery after Thetis from Greek mythology.
Pomona is a stony main-belt asteroid that is 81 kilometres (50 mi) in diameter. It was discovered by German-French astronomer Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt on October 26, 1854, and is named after Pōmōna, the Roman goddess of fruit trees.
Beatrix is a fairly large asteroid orbiting in the inner part of the main asteroid belt. It was discovered by Annibale de Gasparis on April 26, 1865. It was his last asteroid discovery. A diameter of at least 68 kilometres (42 mi) was determined from the Beatrician stellar occultation observed on June 15, 1983. It is named for Beatrice Portinari, beloved of Dante Alighieri and immortalized by him in La Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy.
162 Laurentia is a large and dark main-belt asteroid that was discovered by the French brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on 21 April 1876, and named after Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent, an amateur astronomer who discovered asteroid 51 Nemausa.
John Broughton is an Australian amateur astronomer and artist. He is among the most prolific discoverers of minor planets worldwide, credited by the Minor Planet Center with more than a thousand discoveries made between 1997 and 2008. His observations are done at Reedy Creek Observatory, in Queensland, Australia.
976 Benjamina is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 81 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 27 March 1922, by Russian-French astronomer Benjamin Jekhowsky at the Algiers Observatory in North Africa. The large X/D-type asteroid has a rotation period of 9.7 hours and is likely regular in shape. It was named after the discoverer's son.
2244 Tesla, provisional designation 1952 UW1, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 25 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 October 1952, by Serbian astronomer Milorad Protić at the Belgrade Observatory, then Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, now Serbia. It is named after the inventor Nikola Tesla.
June U. Gunter, better known as Jay U. Gunter or J. U. Gunter, was an American pathologist and amateur astronomer.
Kamil Hornoch is a Czech astronomer who discovered dozens of novae in nearby galaxies. The main belt asteroid 14124 Kamil is named in his honour.
Denis Denisenko is a Russian astronomer of the late 20th – early 21st century, discoverer of 10 supernovae, more than 150 variable stars, an asteroid, and a comet.
3915 Fukushima, provisional designation 1988 PA1, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 21 kilometers in diameter.
