Indiana Asteroid Program

The Indiana Asteroid Program was a program of photographic asteroid observations made with a 10-inch "f/"6.5 Cooke triplet astrographic camera [Thomas Gehrels, [http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1958AJ.....63...50G "The Indiana Asteroid Program," "Astronomical Journal", v. 63, No. 1256 (February 1958), p. 50.] ] at Goethe Link Observatory [ [http://www.astro.indiana.edu/edmodson.shtml Indiana University Department of Astronomy: Frank Edmondson Home Page] ] near Brooklyn, Indiana. The program was initiated by Frank K. Edmondson of Indiana University in 1949 and continued until 1967. [ [http://www.maa.clell.de/Cat/Vol1/Asteroid/dis1note.dat Asteroids II Machine-Readable Data Base - Version March 1988, Binzel, R.P. et al., eds. 1989, Univ. of Arizona Press, Note 103:] "Planets discovered by the Indiana Asteroid Program, Goethe Link Observatory, Indiana University. This program was conceived and directed by F. K. Edmondson; the plates were blinked and measured astrometrically by B. Potter and, following her retirement, by D. Owings, and the photometry was performed under the direction of T. Gehrels. During the years 1947-1967, in which the plates were exposed, a large number of people participated in various aspects of the program." ] It had four objectives:

*recovering asteroids that were far from their predicted positions;
*making new orbital calculations or revising old ones;
*deriving magnitudes accurate to about 0.1 mag; and
*training students. [Gehrels.]

When the observatory's 36-inch (0.91-meter) reflecting telescope proved unsuitable for searching for asteroids, postdoctoral fellow James Cuffey arranged the permanent loan of a 10-inch (0.254-meter) lens from the University of Cincinnati. [Ken Kingery, "Betting on a Sure Thing: A "Record" Ending to Indiana Asteroid Program," Indiana Alumni Magazine, v.1, no. 2, September/October 2008, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Alumni Association, p. 46; See also, [http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/IU_Asteroid_Program_Records_Final_Chapter_999.html Space Daily] .] Mounted in a shed near the main observatory, the instrument using the borrowed lens was responsible for all of the program's discoveries. ["Id."]

By 1958, the program had produced 3,500 photographic plates showing 12,000 asteroid images and had published about 2,000 accurate positions in the "Minor Planet Circular". [Gehrels.] When the program ended, it had discovered a total of 119 asteroids. [ [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPDiscsNum.html IAU Minor Planet Center: List of Minor Planet Discoverers] ] The program's last unnamed discovery, 30718 Records, made in 1955, was not named until 2008, when its orbit was finally calculated and confirmed. [News Release, April 7, 2008: IU Asteroid Program "records" final chapter [http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/7881.html] . The name was chosen by Frank Edmondson in honor of Brenda Records who managed the Indiana University Astronomy Department's office for 20 years.]

The program ended when the lights of the nearby city of Indianapolis became too bright to permit the long exposures required for the photographic plates. [Kingery, p. 47.]

The program's nearly 7,000 photographic plates are now archived at Lowell Observatory. [Kingery, p. 47, and [http://www.astro.indiana.edu/edmodson.shtml Indiana University Department of Astronomy: Frank Edmondson Home Page] ]

Asteroids discovered by the Indiana Asteroid Program

"Source: IAU Minor Planet Center: Discovery Circumstances of Numbered Minor Planets" [ [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/NumberedMPs.html IAU Minor Planet Center: Discovery Circumstances of Numbered Minor Planets] ]

*1575 Winifred *1578 Kirkwood *1602 Indiana *1615 Bardwell *1721 Wells *1728 Goethe Link *1729 Beryl *1741 Giclas *1746 Brouwer *1751 Herget *1761 Edmondson *1762 Russell *1763 Williams *1764 Cogshall *1765 Wrubel *1766 Slipher *1767 Lampland *1788 Kiess *1798 Watts *1799 Koussevitzky *1822 Waterman *1824 Haworth *1826 Miller *1827 Atkinson *1852 Carpenter *1853 McElroy *1952 Hesburgh *1953 Rupertwildt *1955 McMath *1971 Hagihara

*1988 Delores *1994 Shane *1996 Adams *1997 Leverrier *2007 McCuskey *2023 Asaph *2024 McLaughlin *2026 Cottrell *2059 Baboquivari *2065 Spicer *2069 Hubble *2070 Humason *2086 Newell *2110 Moore-Sitterly *2160 Spitzer *2161 Grissom *2165 Young *2168 Swope *2182 Semirot *2196 Ellicott *2227 Otto Struve *2300 Stebbins *2301 Whitford *2322 Kitt Peak *2326 Tololo *2334 Cuffey *2351 O'Higgins *2405 Welch *2417 McVittee *2466 Golson

*2488 Bryan *2496 Fernandus *2516 Roman *2528 Mohler *2624 Samitchell *2641 Lipschutz *2653 Principia *2751 Campbell *2753 Duncan *2775 Odishaw *2842 Unsold *2848 ASP *2853 Harvill *2974 Holden *2996 Bowman *3070 Aitken *3145 Walter Adams *3167 Babcock *3180 Morgan *3185 Clintford *3282 Spencer Jones *3363 Bowen *3371 Giacconi *3428 Roberts *3433 Fehrenbach *3447 Burckhalter *3474 Linsley *3520 Klopsteg *3572 Leogoldberg *3654 AAS

*3717 Thorenia *3382 Johncox *3959 Irwin *3961 Arthurcox *4045 Lowengrub *4046 Swain *4048 Samwestfall *4299 WIYN *4300 Marg Edmondson *4388 Jurgenstock *4423 Golden *4463 Marschwarzschild *4911 Rosenzweig *4912 Emilhaury *5074 Goetzoertel *5336 Honeycutt *5567 Durisen *5568 Mufson *7001 Noether *7368 Haldancohn *7723 Lugger *8059 Deliyannis *8320 van Zee *9143 Burkhead *9144 Hollisjohnson *9260 Edwardolson *9261 Peggythomson *19912 Aurapenenta *30718 Records

Notes and references