Grasslands Observatory - Comets & Asteroids

Grasslands Observatory: Comets & Asteroids

Comet Neat 30 January 2003

This image is a composite of short (30-60 sec) exposures through red (R), green (V), blue (B), and open (O) filters added together.

Asteroid Imaging/Animated Images:
<WARNING - LARGE 200-325K FILES!!>

Since January 1999, James McGaha has discovered 15 asteroids and recovered two lost asteroids. He also has 39 independent comet discoveries. Because of his observations, the Grasslands Observatory was assigned Code 651 by the Minor Planet Center, and James' own Sabino Canyon Observatory has been assigned Code 854 for the discovery of 1999 WC at his observatory. The First Asteroid Discovery at the Grasslands Observatory was made by James on 19 January 1999 at 03:55 UT. It has the designation J99BO5N. James was in the process of performing astrometry on 1995 CN when he discovered 1999 BN5. James currently has over 1300 Minor Planet Electronic Circular (MPEC) publications of astrometric data for near earth asteroids.

Comets

On February 2, 2000 (UT), James discovered that near earth object (NEO) E91545 was a comet instead of an asteroid. This object is now known as Comet P/2000 B3 (Linear). On February 5, 2000 (UT), James discovered that NEO 0C1766 is a comet. It is now known as P/2000 C1 (Hergenrother).

This image is a five minute CCD exposure of Comet Hergenrother taken at the Grasslands Observatory by James McGaha on February 5.363, 2000.

Object	Other Name (s)	Type of Object	Thumbnail Image	Comments
Comet Giacobini-Zinner on 17 November 1998 at 03:00 hrs UT	21P/Giacobini-Zinner	Periodic Comet
Comet Giacobini-Zinner	21P/Giacobini-Zinner	Periodic Comet		Image obtained at The 3towers Observatory 15 November 1998 ~ 05:30UT.
Comet Hale-Bopp	C/1995 O1 Hale Bopp	Long Period Comet		Image obtained 13 October 1996 with HPC-1 camera.
Comet Hale-Bopp	C/1995 O1 Hale Bopp	Long Period Comet		The nucleus of the comet is well seen with this image obtained in April 1997.
Comet Hartley2	103P/Hartley	Periodic Comet		Image obtained on the evening of 30-31 October 2010.
Comet Holmes: 18 November 2007	P/17			Periodic comet in outburst. Dream Machine image.
Comet Holmes: 18 November 2007	P/17			Periodic comet in outburst. Meade LDX55 image.
Comet Hyakutake 25 March 1996	C/1996 B2			Ax6 CCD camera using a 105mm Nikon lens. Exp = 20 sec. at Grasslands Observatory by: M. Newberry and J. McGaha
Comet Ikeya-Zhang on 2 March 2002	C/2002 C1			20-second exposure with Finger Lakes Instrumentation Dream Machine CCD camera.
Comet Ikeya-Zhang on 13 March 2002 at 2:00 hrs UT	C/2002 C1			This image is a composite of short (30-60 sec) exposures through red (R), green (V), blue (B), and clear (CL) filters added together.
Comet Linear	C/2002 T7		Comet Linear 2002 T7, 12 June 2004	This image is a composite of short (30-60 sec) exposures through red (R), green (V), blue (B), and open (O) filters added together.
Comet Machholz	C/2004 Q2		Comet Machholz 12 December 2004 Comet Machholz near the Pleiades 7 January 2005. Ten minute exposure with Canon 10D digital camera and 20 mm f/2 lens, ISO 1600. By James McGaha	The prime focus image is a composite of short (30-90 sec) exposures through red (R), green (V), and blue (B) filters added together.
Comet Neat on 30 January 2003	C/2002 V1			This image is a composite of short (30-60 sec) exposures through red (R), green (V), blue (B), and open (O) filters added together.
Comet Shoemaker Levy 9				Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, May 5, 1994. Image taken by James McGaha with HPC-1 CCD Camera at the Grasslands Observatory. The original digital image was lost. The present image was obtained by scanning a slide of the original CCD image.