OCA-DLR Asteroid Survey

The OCA-DLR Asteroid Survey (ODAS) was a European scientific project to search for asteroids and comets.^[1] This project was the joint work of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (OCA) in France and the Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) in Germany. They operated in cooperation with a global effort regarding Near-Earth objects that was begun by the Working Group on Near-Earth Objects, a component of the International Astronomical Union.^[1]

This project began October 1996 and ceased observations in April 1999 for a refurbishing. However the telescope has not been reopened since that time.^[2]

New Near-Earth Asteroids Discovered by O.D.A.S.
1997 NJ6 1997 XV11 recovery 1998 EP8 1998 SJ2 1998 VD31

Survey observations were made during the 15 days each month when moon light was at a minimum, during the first and last quarters of the lunar month.^[1] The operation used a 90cm Schmidt telescope located near Nice, France. A combination of a CCD camera^[3] and a software package^[4] were used for automated detection of moving objects.

Throughout its tenure, the project was responsible for the discovery of 708 asteroids and one new comet. Of these five were found to be near earth asteroids and 8 were Mars-crossing asteroids.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Hahn, Gerhard (2006-07-17). "O.D.A.S. Home Page". European Asteroid Research Node. http://earn.dlr.de/odas/. Retrieved 2006-08-13. 
2. ^ Paine, Michael (2000-04-26). "Bigger Telescopes Seek Killer Asteroids". space.com. http://www.space.com/news/japan_spacewatch_000426.html. Retrieved 2006-08-13. 
3. ^ A. Maury, J.P. Ragey, H. Viot, M. Harald, T. Behnke (1998). "Converting a Schmidt Telescope to CCDs: the OCA/DLR Asteroid Survey". In James W. Beletic and Paola Amico. Optical Detectors for Astronomy : Proceedings of an ESO CCD workshop held in Garching, Germany, October 8-10, 1996. Boston, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 239. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998oda..conf..239M. Retrieved 2006-08-13. 
4. ^ Hahn, Gerhard (1999). "Image processing and astrometric reduction routines of the OCA-DLR Asteroid Survey (O.D.A.S.)". Acta Historica Astronomiae 6: 174. Bibcode 1999AcHA....6..174H. 

See also

• Spaceguard