The Early History of Photometric Observations of Asteroids Made At Table Mountain Observatory (Abstract)

Volume 37 number 2 (2009)

James W. Young

Alan W. Harris

Abstract

(Abstract only) An Ascop S-20 photomultiplier tube mounted in a Mt. Wilson-designed dry-ice cold-box assembly was used with a pulse-counting system to measure the colors, magnitudes, rotational rates, and phase coefficients of over 300 different asteroids between 1978 and 1993. During this time period, nearly one third of all known asteroid rotational rates (~150) were obtained from this effective system. All observations were made with manual telescopic pointing, with data written out long-hand utilizing the 0.6-meter telescope at JPL’s Table Mountain Facility. Nearly forty refereed journal (mostly Icarus) papers were published containing these results, with yet a few more to come.