Northolt Branch Observatories
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 Northolt Branch Observatories logo | |||||||||
| Alternative names | NBO | ||||||||
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| Observatory code | Z80, Z48, Z37 | ||||||||
| Location |
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| Coordinates | 51°33′17″N 0°22′19″W / 51.55466°N 0.37192°W | ||||||||
| Altitude | 55 metres (180 ft) | ||||||||
| Established | September 27, 2015[1] | ||||||||
| Website | www | ||||||||
| Telescopes | |||||||||
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  Location of Northolt Branch Observatories | |||||||||
The Northolt Branch Observatories is an astronomical observatory located in London, England.[2] NBO collects follow-up astrometry of near-Earth asteroids and other small Solar System objects.[3] (NBO; Observatory codes: Z80, Z48 and Z37)[citation needed]
Formation and membership
[edit]Northolt Branch Observatories was founded in 2015,[3] as an extension of the London-based Northolt Branch Astro group of local amateur astrophotographers.[4] It is a British-German collaboration: Data is collected on-site by observers at the telescopes in England, and then processed remotely from Germany.[5]
Chris Lintott described them as "amongst the sharpest players of this game" of NEO spotting, pointing out that their location in West London suffers from so much light pollution that it "could lay serious claim to being the place with the worst possible conditions from which to observe the sky".[3]
Discoveries and false alarms
[edit]The two main belt asteroids 72834 Guywells and 128345 Danielbamberger are named after members of the Northolt Branch Observatories team.[6][7]
One of their observations was designated 2020 GL2 by the Minor Planet Center in its catalogue.[3] Observed by NBO between 2020-04-10 and 2020-04-12 and reported by them, it was retrospectively discovered in earlier images from other telescopes in California and Hawai'i, but later formally retracted by the MPC from the catalogue, a rare event, when it was determined to be ESA's BepiColombo.[8] Their images of BepiColombo from those nights went on later the same month to win an informal ESA competition for the "best track" of the spacecraft.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ "Our Story: The Northolt Branch Observatories". facebook.com. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
- ^ Freeman 2018.
- ^ a b c d Lintott 2024, p. 95.
- ^ "Astrophiz 23: Meet Asteroid Hunters Daniel Bamberger and Guy Wells. Astrophotographer Dr Ian 'Astroblog' Musgrave". December 15, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
- ^ "Astrophiz 50: Asteroid Hunters II". February 1, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
- ^ HNA 2018.
- ^ OP 2022.
- ^ Lintott 2024, p. 96.
- ^ ESA 2020.
Sources
[edit]- Lintott, Chris (2024). Our Accidental Universe: Stories of Discovery from Asteroids to Aliens. Random House. ISBN 9781473593381.
- "Bepi in the sky with stars: photo contest winners announced". European Space Agency. April 30, 2020.
- Freeman, David (May 16, 2018). "Asteroid the size of a city block just gave Earth a close shave". NBC News. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
- "Sein Name fliegt durchs All: Asteroid nach Hobby-Astronom aus Laisa benannt". Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA) (in German). April 18, 2018.
- "Ein "Stern", der seinen Namen trägt". Oberhessische Presse (in German). April 15, 2018. Archived from the original on July 11, 2022.
Further reading
[edit]- "DELETION OF 2020 GL2". Minor Planet Electronic Circular. Minor Planet Center. April 13, 2020. 2020-G97.
- "2020 GL2". Minor Planet Electronic Circular. Minor Planet Center. April 13, 2020. 2020-G96.
- Bamberger, Daniel; Wells, Guy (October 2019). "The Difficulty of Predicting Stellar Occultations by Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov". Research Notes of the AAS. 3 (10). The American Astronomical Society: 159. Bibcode:2019RNAAS...3..159B. doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ab4efb.